


A Long Road

by ThroughPestilencesAndFamines



Series: Spellbound By The Devil [3]
Category: Ghost (Swedish Band)
Genre: F/M, plot heavy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-21
Updated: 2016-11-27
Packaged: 2018-08-10 04:11:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 29,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7829953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThroughPestilencesAndFamines/pseuds/ThroughPestilencesAndFamines
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>During the time that leads up to the release of Meliora, Alpha and Omega become even closer</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Long Road I

**Author's Note:**

> No names will be mentioned

“Did he really say he had enough of us?”, Papa asked. Earth laughed: “Yeah, and it wasn’t even me this time! I don’t know what’s the best part of this: Omega taking his powers to a whole other level, Waters little fountain and the face of the soaked devil that followed or Alpha being a total badass!” A nervous laugh by Water followed. Soon, all of us joined in. Then Papa asked the question that had been on my mind: “You already told us that the word of these powers in your family was spread from generation to generation and they only show up every so often. But how did you find out about yours?”

Alpha started to giggle: “Purely by accident! I must have been seven or eight. It was during my second year of elementary school in Poland. There was this group of really mean Christian girls who were always sticking to each other. Must have been eight or nine of them. I was the weird new kid who only spoke broken Polish and an easy target because I knew nobody. They always bullied me because I never went to church thus not knowing the latest shit about Jesus, their hero, friend and savior. I didn’t know that in the beginning and during a religion class at school I unknowingly stated how full of shit religions are – the things you say when your dad is a scientist. That was enough for them to pursue me in the name of the lord because my existence was not worthy. Funny, what they learned in Sunday school. I did not care too much but over time their bullying attacks got worse. 

One day, after about six or seven months, they circled me in the locker room of the gym. Eight against one and started to beat me up. Somebody pushed me, I fell on the ground and everybody started to kick me. I screamed but nobody came to help me. Understandably, I got really angry about how unfair this whole situation was. I felt this rage growing inside of me and suddenly found myself picturing really bad things happening to the main bully. I kicked the particular girl in the head and somehow got back to my feet, now face to face with that little monster, the motor behind everything, and told her: “You’re a coward! Hiding behind seven. You don’t have the courage nor the strength of your god to go against me alone and you know that! I don’t fear you but you fear me because I’m different, you’re just another coward that hides behind your lord!” 

I must have hit some nerves because she waved the others back. Then without warming she attacked me and something within me reacted. In defense, I moved my hands up and accidently must have released some of the power or rage or whatever had gathered inside me. The results were… let’s put it this way: fiery. Her whole hair and clothes started to burn. Nobody dared to touch me nor move a single step. So it was actually me who grabbed the fire extinguisher. 

The local authorities tried to investigate the case but the parents of the big bully put lots of pressure on them and thus halted the investigation. The children were kept quit and extra religious sessions at their church were scheduled to make sure every memory of the event was terminated. What happened was against their beliefs as only God could perform wonders beyond the average human horizon of abilities. I did not talk – why would I, thus the investigation was put on ice. The only consequence was my change of schools to prevent any further damage. I wasn’t sad about that. 

But the incident had made me curious and afterwards I spent a large amount of my free time trying to repeat what I had done. Sometimes, I succeeded, when there were enough negative emotions in my mind but the outcome was very unpredictable. So I tried to balance out all the emotions and after many years of trying I somehow found the right balance between calmness and anger. After that my skills improved rapidly. These powers showed up accidentally and I shaped and improved them over the years. That’s all!” To prove her words, she fetched a cigarette out of one of my pockets, put it between her lips and lighted it up with a burning index finger. 

She exhaled the smoke: “The last person in my family who was able to do something like this before me lived five generations ago. My grandma always told me stories about her pipe smoking Grandma who went by the name Angry Elizabeth…” “Angry Elizabeth! What did she do to earn that name?”, Water asked. “Arson”, was the simple answer, “but she was never convicted because of the lack of evidence.” 

Finally, I got the opportunity to ask my questions: “Now we know that but how did you know that you could pull off something like that in front of the devil like telling lies and surprise him with your abilities? How could you be sure that he didn’t reach those depths of your mind when he took a look into your soul? Has that by any means anything to do with some sort of mysterious communication with Air?” I just spoke it out and again Alphas and Airs eyes met, while Papa, Earth and Water had frozen in their movements. 

Then Alpha started to speak: “Come on, Air! I think your secrets will be save with him! Omega has almost reached our level of powers, too!” Airs answer was silence, as always. “So the two of you are really able to communicate?”, I asked, “and what do you mean with level of powers? And why are the others not moving?” Air looked at Alpha, rolled his eyes and after hesitating a few seconds longer, finally put a thumb up. 

So Alpha started to explain: “Air has telepathic abilities. He basically spoke to me the first time we met: during the concert. Air told me that he sensed something between you and me that was far beyond conventional love and told me that he would make sure we would meet after the concert.” So my assumptions had always been right about Airs special powers. But that he had been the one pulling the strings in the background… that was really unexpected!

She continued: “He even found out about my guitar skills and asked me if I’d be interested in joining the band at least if everybody else agreed on that. He told me to start a conversation with you, Omega, about that and it worked. He also told me a few other things like things about the bands’ background, each individual member and how to approach the devil and trick him. We worked together on that plan and it worked magically. You actually provided a vital part to this plan as well, which leads directly to your next question:

You evolved! By removing your inner barriers, you reached a total new level of control over your powers and expanded your mind. You found this balance of emotions in combination with a free flow of your inner energy like I did a few years ago. Of course the better you are at handling your powers, the greater they become over time. That’s what happened to Air, too, with a little twist. While you and I developed ours on our own, the devil helped Air to expand his powers with some really powerful ancient black magic that’s usually only practiced in hell, the kingdom of the devil. This kind of magic is actually banned from everywhere else, but the devil used it on Air, anyway, to free him from a deadly curse a servant of his Dad had cast upon him. 

After a few years, his Father learned of what sort of magic had been practiced on the earth and decided to destroy every bit of evidence. But before Air could be terminated, the devil begged his Father to spare his dear servants’ life. His Father agreed on a few conditions: after almost 300 years on earth, the devil immediately had to return to hell, leaving all his servants behind, while, after a lot of torture, Air was permanently and irreversibly enabled to speak. He can’t talk physically nor write. And to make sure he couldn’t tell anybody about anything via his telepathic abilities, He, literally speaking, put wires around his mind. Air is only allowed to communicate with those who at last have roughly the same level of either mental or physical abilities. 

Air communicated with me, because he sensed that I’m on the same mental level of controlling my powers despite their, in comparison to you two guys, weak nature. My physical powers will evolve as soon as I become a Nameless Ghoul. You, Omega, will reach the required level to directly communicate with Air anytime soon. What happened earlier, was a very important step in the right direction. You found this balance in a very short time span. I needed years for that. You’re not far away from the needed level. Just keep on practicing. Soon, Air will be able to talk to you, too. 

If he communicates with anybody else, he’ll die. That’s why Papa, Water and Earth are not allowed to hear this conversation. Air shut them off for the duration of this. All of them are very far away from the required level of abilities. You, on the other side, are very close. Just keep going!” That explained a lot of things. I looked at Air. Somehow I felt sorry for all he had been through. Somebody must have heard my thoughts:

“Don’t feel sorry, especially not about the absence of communication. Air says it’s by far better than the damned curse that would have put him in his grave. He says he always got by. Somehow he made it through time and got what he wanted. There are ways to get people to do whatever you want. And now, the devil is back on earth which will make a lot of things easier. But he appreciates your heartfelt sympathy. Nobody else in the band cares more about him than you, Omega. None of the others ever spent a thought thinking about Airs wellbeing and his feelings and so on. He wants to thank you for your concern!”

I padded Air on the shoulder: “I simply care for others.” “But most don’t!”, Alpha continued for Air, her eyes closed in concentration, “and he wants you to ensure that he never manipulated any of you. He can erase and distort memories and force people to do things they don’t want to but never did that with other Ghouls except once when Earth saw him without his mask, another thing he isn’t allowed to show. One day you’ll find out why.” “Thanks, for your honesty!”, I spoke. But one question lurked somewhere in my mind: Why would anybody with that amount of burdens and restrictions still want to continue living?

Airs brown eyes met mine and I saw the life sparkle within them. Alpha spoke for him and expressed what he couldn’t: “There is light in this world that I fight for and that’s worth living!”


	2. A Long Road V

“That sounds very poetic! But, sorry for asking, what is this ‘light’ you’re fighting for?”, I asked Air. His eyes grew bigger, “you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to!” Air nodded his head, while Alpha continued speaking for him: “Living means defying Him! That’s one reason. One day I’ll tell you about the others. Not now! And I suggest we should end the conversation now. I don’t want to numb them any longer. Now you know how to reach me: Just think about something, focus on the thought and I’ll answer through Alpha until your powers have reached the required level. Nice talking to you, Omega!” I saw the smile in his eyes.

“Seems like you got a funny family, Alpha! A great, great, whatever Grandma Angry Elizabeth who’s into arson! A shame that she lived a long time before Varg! They would have liked each other!”, Earth giggled. Obviously, none of the others had heard the conversation with Air. Papa smacked Earth in the back of his head: “Shut up, Earth! That was very offensive and by far one of the worst jokes I’ve ever heard!” “I’m sorry! Maybe I had too much of the absinthe. I think I should go to bed before something worse happens”, Earth said massaging the back of his head that had taken a lot of punishment lately. 

The next day I woke up Alphas warm body tightly pressed against mine - somebody was shaking me. I turned around, as I had slept with my back facing the curtains, only to face Air in his usual mask: “Air! What the hell! What time is it?” To my surprise, an answer followed, not by Air, but by an already dressed Water: “Almost five! We wanted to wake you for the broadcast of the review by Rock World. It’s up in a few minutes.” Indeed, the night had been long. Alpha giggled beside me: “Good morning, sweetheart! That sounds like a good reason to finally get up!” I climbed out of my bunk after we ended our kiss. 

“I think all of us had lots of fun last night! Don’t you agree? Especially you two!”, a bare-chested Earth laughed, hanging halfway out of his top bunk and pointing towards Alpha and me. I shook my head over his loose mouth while putting on my black pants and a random shirt I found in my closet. “Earth, why can’t you, just once, keep your mouth shut? I’m surprised you’re already awake. If you’re getting downstairs, too, please get dressed. It’s a little too early for dancing skeletons!” I handed Alpha a few of my clothes since hers were still at her friends’ place. 

A few minutes later all of us were downstairs sitting at the table and waiting for the broadcast to begin. We didn’t have to wait long ‘til we heard the voice of Alphas favorite music critique Mark Smith: “Hi, this is Mark Smith of Rock World! Welcome to my weekly broadcast about the most important concerts, facts and releases in the spheres of rock and metal. As most of you know, I’ve been talking about this Swedish band for quite some time. Their name is Ghost. Some like them. Some hate them. They divide the masses. Honestly, I never quite understood the hype surrounding them. Are they serious or not? Why the masks? And many more questions! I always guessed they wore the masks to hide the fact they can’t assemble a constant line up and for me, a band without consistent staff isn’t a band. There are tons of speculation online about replacements and so on. That’s why I’ve always been very skeptical when it comes to Papa and his five Ghouls. Still, some of my friends love Ghost especially praising their live shows. That’s why I wanted to make myself a picture to answer the question: Why do people love Ghost?

Before the actual show I got the chance to meet the two guitarists Alpha, the Ghoul with the most speculation surrounding the man behind the mask, and Omega, nicknamed The Stomping Queen. To be honest, we had our moments! It’s a shame we weren’t allowed to tape it since it was easily one of the… most interesting, best and yet weirdest interviews I’ve ever had.” All of us started to laugh so we missed the next few parts about the interview. 

“…so I ended up in the first row right in front of their lead guitarist Alpha and he simply blew me away! I’ve never seen anyone that energetic on stage. Those around me must have felt it, too. The crowd was so lively and vivid. I can’t really explain in words, what was going on in that theater except that is was purely magic and got really fucking hot!” The broadcast went on. Alpha looked at me and sighed with relief: “Seems like somebody really liked it.” After the broadcast had ended I felt her hand sneaking into my pocket on the search for cigarettes. She handed me one while putting the other between her lips lighting it up with a small flame from her index finger. Water looked at us: “Speaking of a fiery show that really was a heck of a fiery performance by you, Alpha! I couldn’t agree more with that damned critique!”

“Thanks, Water!”, Alpha smiled, “but may I ask what’s going on after tonight? I still need to get my things from my friends’ place and why did the devil keep on talking about this Grammis award?” “Because he loves trophies!”, Papa answered. Earth added: “He wants us to become his golden boys and for him, the Grammis is the precursor of what’s to come.” I looked at Alpha: “The ceremony takes place in about two weeks. Until then we still have ten shows to perform before we take a quick break from tour for the ceremony. Two of us are scheduled to be there. You probably know what I’m going to ask you, don’t you?” 

Alpha exhaled the last bits of her cigarette: “Yeah, I’m going there with…” “No, you promised me we would be going there together! I always wanted to meet those crazy people who make all those awful music that’s played on the radio and ask them what their thinking about their own crappy music”, Earth interrupted her, “I’m the one going there!” “No”, was the common answer. My eyes fixated my brother: “You’re watching this from our parents’ place. You’re not going to annoy or harass or molest anybody at the award ceremony just because you think it’s funny. The only reason why I wanted to take you there was because I didn’t have a better option. Now, I do and it’s better for the image of our band. Argument over!” Earth seemed to be disappointed. “Maybe next time they’ll send more tickets and we can go there together but only if you promise to behave yourself!”

Now, Alpha spoke before Earth could reply anything: “We’re going to Linköping for the tour break?” I nodded my head: “Yeah, we haven’t been home since Christmas. The tour schedule’s just crazy! I’m really looking forward to sleep in a real bed for a few days in a row.” Alpha raised an eyebrow: “Do you never sleep in hotels?” “Usually not! Here, nobody can interrupt and disturb us while being unmasked so we can do our thing. That’s especially important for my beauty sleep! And honestly, it kind of feels like being a big family when are amongst each other and reminds us of home”, Papa answered her question and I agreed 100 percent.

“And you guys really celebrate Christmas despite your shtick?” Somebody seemed to be quite nosy. Earth burst into laughter: “No, we’re not allowed to, but we still decorate the house and wear these ugly sweaters just for fun. Water, show her the pictures!” Water stood up, opened a drawer and came back to the table a bunch of photographs in his hand, handing them over to Alpha. 

She looked at them. Since the whole Ghost thing had started our families came together for Christmas, basically the only time in the year we were home for more than a few days. The first few photos only showed Papa and me in our ‘different’ state which was commented by Alpha with a very fitting description: “Damn, Papa! You look fucking old!” Over the years Water and Earth had joined us. And in the last picture, taken a few months ago, all of us were there wearing weird sweaters standing in front of the decorated tree. Even Air was there. Though he still refused to unmask and wear anything but the black cassock. In an attempt to make him look a little more solemnly, somebody had put a pair of plastic deer horns over the hood of his cassock. 

Alpha seemed to be very amused by the photo: “Looks like your families are a funny bunch! Air, you should wear those horns more often!” I took a look on the clock – time for our third and last show in London. Ten more shows until we would be heading home.


	3. A Long Road III

I stood next to Alpha who was cramping some of her clothes into a bag. Two amazing weeks lay behind us. We had gotten her stuff, which honestly wasn’t much, shortly after the last ritual in London, before we headed off to the European main land. Now, we were about to be dropped off at our place in Stockholm. After that our crew would take some days off, as well, before heading to the next leg of our tour, which never seemed to stop. 

Alpha zipped her bag. Mine was already packed. We both looked at Air who was deciding upon which pieces of black clothing he wanted to put in his suitcase. I laughed: “Air, they’re all black and have the exact same cut. We’ll be there in five minutes.” Air simply showed me the finger and focused back on the pile of black clothes. “I’m supposed to tell you to mind your own business and get your mask on!”, Alpha, who spoke these words for Air, said and then looked at Air, now speaking her own words, “still, Air! They’re all the same!” A few minutes later, the bus came to a halt and Air finally closed his suitcase. We went downstairs to join the rest of the Ghouls who had already packed. 

We said goodbye to the crew and after a quick stop in our Stockholm apartment, got into a couple of cars and headed for Linköping, a few hours of drive ahead of us. Air had joined Alpha and me while the others got in Waters car. Alpha and I would soon be back in Stockholm for the Grammis. “Well, Air! Are you going to scare my mom again with your sudden appearances?” I saw him nodding his head in the rearview mirror. “And I’m supposed to tell you that there’ll be enough meat in the house.” Two thumbs went up. Now it was Alpha who spoke: “Speaking of sudden appearances, are you really able to travel from one place to another just like that?” She snapped her fingers. “I think, the both of us would like to know.” 

Again I looked in the rearview mirror. I felt massive amounts of air circulating through the car at a high speed. The center of these winds seemed to be somewhere behind me. Airs image got more and more blurred. And then, one second Air was sitting on the left side of the back seat, the next, he sat on the right side. I felt the massive amounts of air circulating through the car ceasing. Then again, I heard Alphas voice speaking for Air: “It’s a little complicated. Small distances are no problem. The bigger the distance and the less known the destination, the trickier and more tiring it gets. One day I can show you how it’s done.” Somehow, all my assumptions about Air had turned out to be true. 

We spent the next few hours in casual conversation. A few times we saw the others, Water driving in concentration, Earths masked face pressed against the window waving at random people and Papa gracefully sleeping in the back of the car. A few miles ahead of our hometown we got stuck in traffic and quite a lot people recognized us. Air was busy waving at them, while Alpha and I tried to picture what was going on in their minds seeing us driving around still in our full stage gear. 

I turned the engine off. Finally, home after more than two months on the road. “So that’s where you grew up?”, Alpha said, “looks nice!” We got out of the car when Alpha asked: “Where are the others?” “They’re heading to Waters place instead”, I answered her and thought about the conversation I had with Water earlier. I did not want to have my brother there when I brought Alpha home for the first time, nor did I want him to ruin everything as he usually did. So I had told Water to play Earths babysitter, at least for a little while. That definitely was for the better. 

I opened the door. “I wasn’t expecting you that early!” My mom must have heard us. Since it was early afternoon dad must be still at work. I was caught in a tight embrace: “I’m so glad that you are home!” After that she turned towards Air and welcomed him. Air even responded by shaking her hand and nodding his head in approval, something he would never have done prior to the arrival of the new Alpha. Speaking of Alpha, my mothers’ attention shifted towards her and introduced herself: “So, you’re the son-in-law Omega has talked about! Alpha, nice to meet you!” Alpha took her hand and answered in her best Swedish: “Nice to meet you, too, mother-in-law!” After that, both Alpha and I had to giggle. 

Yeah, my parents could be labeled as our worlds’ nosiest super hardcore fans. They watched every interview and many videos of our concerts. They were very supportive, to say it in a nice way - obsessive was the other. A couple of days after Alphas first show in London they had called and wanted to know everything about our newest member, especially because of the many positive reviews they had read in the papers, magazines and online blogs. They knew all about the prophecy and since everything seemed to work out with the new Alpha, they had put one and one together. But I did not want to tell them too much over the telephone. So, they kept calling every day drilling me with questions until a very exasperated me had enough and told them that the new Alpha indeed was the one and I would bring my partner to Linköping for our next stay there before the Grammis. Besides that, I kept my mouth shut. You never knew who was listening. 

“What’s so funny?”, my mother asked. I ripped off my mask and the balaclava and started to speak: “Mom, not son-in-law – it’s daughter-in-law!” After that, Alpha removed her masquerade, too. The jaw of my mother dropped: “Are you fucking kidding me? Why didn’t you tell me earlier! Omega, you almost gave me a heart attack! Still, it’s nice meeting you, Alpha!” An even bigger smile crossed Alphas face and she stepped a few steps closer and embraced my mother: “Sorry, for the surprise!” 

I felt a hand grabbing my arm, obviously for some support, and twisted in its direction. Air had his other hand on his belly and had leaned forward in a silent laugh attack. Somebody showed a whole new range of emotions. It took a while ‘til all of us stopped laughing. Before letting my mother go, Alpha asked her: “Are you okay?” She nodded her head. I still felt Airs arm pulling down my arm. 

Finally, my mother got her words back: “How the hell did that happen? I thought this damn prophecy was all about finding your perfect match, Omega, and the devil always spoke about a male and weak women and so on… Still, I’m very glad you’re here, Alpha!” I stepped at Alphas side and took her hand, leaving Air behind: “Luckily, his predictions turn out to be false from time to time. Like all of us, he isn’t always flawless.”

A few hours later, my father had finally joined us and we were sitting at the dinner table. My parents were drilling Alpha with questions while I was astonished by the speed Air was shoveling food under his mask. But despite all the questions I sensed that my parents were more than pleasantly surprised by our newest band member I had brought in the house. But I was very happy my brother wasn’t here with us. He would have gone nuts more than once. Having a serious conversation about a possible change of Alpha into a Ghoul or about a relationship seemed to be impossible with him.

After dinner was over my parents soon went to bed and Air closed the door of the guest room behind him. Alpha and I remained on the hallway. She looked at me: “They seem to be quite nice and supportive!” I smiled: “Yeah, I’m glad they are!” We entered my room and Alpha grabbed a few things: “Is there a bathroom on the upper level?” “Yeah, of course! Let me show you” I opened another door on the hallway and turned on the lights while she entered and took a look around. “I’m coming in after you’re finished. Just take your ti…”, I was about to close the door when she pulled me in and closed the door behind her. “Or we’re doing it this way!”, she suggested and started to rip her clothes off. After that, she started with mine. I didn’t mind! 

I took her hand and soon we felt the warm water running over our joined bodies. Her hands slid over the scarred tissue on my back while her tongue explored the depths of my mouth. After a while our lips parted and she moaned in my ear: “Finally more space for the two of us!” Her fingers went all over my torso while we were working hard on our way to the climax. Soon, the both of us were rewarded. I looked into her crystal blue eyes trying to catch my breath: “That was beautiful!” The answer was a big smile and another kiss. I saw her taking the soap into her hand: “Let me clean the mess up I’ve made of you!” I felt her touch everywhere on my body. She looked up at me when she was cleaning a particularly sensitive spot: “That scar tissue really is everywhere!” 

“Yeah, except for the hands and around my eyes!” She stood up: “Then let’s concentrate on those parts for a change! I think I’m finished down there.” She shampooed my hair while our eyes never broke contact. After she was done cleaning my body, I returned the favor except that her skin was soft. It really felt good to feel the skin again I had lost many years ago. “I didn’t know showering could be that exciting!”, was all I said when I massaged her scalp. She giggled: “That’s why I wanted you to be here!” A few minutes later I turned the water off and grabbed a towel. When we were halfway dry I simply lifted her up and headed for the door. She wrapped her legs around my torso as we entered the hallway. It was only a short way to my room so I didn’t expect any spectators. 

But just when I was about three meters away from my door another one opened. Obviously, somebody hadn’t expected to see anybody on the hallway as well. Air stood there a bundle of clothes, a towel and some bathroom stuff in his hands. The both of us froze. Air somehow managed to free one of his hands forming a thumb-up before moving back in the guest room and silently closing the door behind him. The smile in his eyes clearly indicated that the scene in the hallway must have amused him. Luckily, Alpha hadn’t seen Air. I continued my way and entered my room. I put Alpha down on the bed where the action continued. Some things are just better when you’re not in a tour bus.


	4. A Long Road IV

The next morning, I woke up to Airs gaze. I wondered how long he had been there watching us. My movements must have woken Alpha who had slept on my right arm. Her “Good morning” was accompanied by a kiss. Only then she realized the spectator in the room: “Good morning, Air!” Air simply waved his right hand. Moments later, Alpha started to laugh: “Air asks if we had a pleasant time last night after the scene in the hallway. Air, I didn’t know you were there!” Air shrugged his shoulders. I looked at Air: “Hopefully, you didn’t put on the wrong cassocks after we left behind ours in the bathroom. To answer your question: we had a nice evening. I hope I won’t have to fill you in on the details. They’re rather smudgy. But why are you here?” 

Alpha answered for him her eyes closed in concentration listening to his thoughts: “Yeah, that’s enough for me. Last night, I didn’t mean to spy on you. Anyway, I just wanted to inform you that the others are downstairs waiting for you to wake up. But the real reason I’m here is that I have an offer for you: I could transport you guys to Stockholm for the Grammis ceremony tonight and pick you up tomorrow. It would save you a lot of time when we would do it my way. Don’t you agree?” Alpha looked at me nodding her head. “Let’s do it your way”, I said. 

Then, Alpha spoke for Air again: “And now, you should put some clothes on and get downstairs. They’re waiting for you!” While we indeed got dressed, Air borrowed Alphas voice: “Well, you honestly don’t think that was the first time I caught somebody in the act!” “If you’re talking about Papa…”, I started, but was interrupted and things got interesting. 

Airs chest moved up and down in silent laughter and he again borrowed Alphas voice: “Well, who hasn’t seen Papa in action. In this case, I’m not talking about Papa. I’m talking about other people in the band. I’ve been waiting a long time to finally tell you this, but I’m honestly surprised you never noticed those other things happening involving some of the Ghouls. I always wanted this little pay back to happen and this is the best way to get that little fucker by telling you his dirty little secret, Omega. 

Have you never asked yourself the question, why Water is so open, relaxed and talkative when Earth is around? Since they assume I can’t communicate with anybody, they don’t think it’s necessary to keep their relationship secret when I’m around. You should only listen to their dirty talk when we play those silly video games. Back in the day, people used to slay each other for real as a sort of entertainment and now they’re only pushing plastic buttons. At least, their conversations are quite informative during those games. I think they started in the first place because Earth is actually very insecure about his appearance since he became a Ghoul and tries to cover it with his usual humor and childish behavior. Thinks that makes him a tough guy. He should only see himself in the mirror.”

My mouth was wide open. That really surprised me. They must have hidden their relationship very well. I never thought about anything between them nor had I noticed anything except Water being less shy. Earth must have really been desperate. I looked at Air, eager to find out more: “And when did they start?” Air sighed noiselessly: “About 10 months ago. Earth got really frustrated with his state because the prohibition of revealing himself to anybody other than us Ghouls limits him from fun with any girls. Not the life you expect of a rock star that’s thought of being surrounded by willing beauties. His sexual drive grew stronger the longer his lust wasn’t satisfied. Being reminded of Papas constant times with all those groupies didn’t make it any better. Since the group he’s allowed to reveal himself to is very small, his options are kind of limited: wrinkled Papa turns him off, you’re his brother and I scare him too much to dare a try. So he turned towards the only person left - shy submissive Water.”

Wild thoughts went through my mind while I still decided how to feel about this. Seems like Alpha had already decided, as she joined Airs laughter yet hers wasn’t silent. Earth was my brother and Water a good friend but Earth was also a big pain in my ass. I had to think about the many times he had bragged in front of me about how easily women were falling for him and how many chances he had taken. And now, the desperate womanizer had done something I never expected him to do. What Air had told me was just so crazy I had to laugh as well. Seems like I got the woman of my wildest dreams while all Earth could find was a fountain-shooting stuttering bassist who hated bus fires. 

“Air, this is the best thing ever! I think you just made my day!” But our laugh was soon interrupted by a heavy knock on the door. “Hey assholes, are you awake yet? We’re all waiting for you!”, Earth, the person we had just talked about, yelled through the door. Alpha answered: “Calm down, Earth! We’re almost ready.” “Brother, I hope you can hear me, too, but I wanted you to know that I’m pretty upset you didn’t want me there when you brought your love to this place! It would have been so much fun, wouldn’t it?” I didn’t reply. I simply waited and after a while, I finally heard departing steps on the floor. Yet somehow, my brother couldn’t keep his mouth shut and we all heard him say: “Just wait ‘til I find somebody and bring her home. You won’t be welcomed, big brother!”

“I think he already did that! Just unofficially!”, was my reply to his comment after I had heard him on the lowest step. Alpha and Air, though silently, broke out into laughter. After all of us had calmed down, Air borrowed Alphas voice: “I promise, it gets even better when you watch the two lovebirds interact with each other while others are around. It’s just hilarious when you know everything. Just promise me to keep quiet about the way you found out, deal?” Both Alpha and I nodded our heads, before we finally got downstairs where my parents and the rest of the band were already sitting.

And indeed Air didn’t promise to much: just watching them was the most hilarious thing I had ever seen: the looks they exchanges were priceless. It now seemed weird that I had never noticed anything before. What I saw just amused me and not just me: Alphas voiced bared this amused undertone every time she opened her mouth while a silently laughing Air was enough to let even Earth realize that something was different: “What’s wrong with you, Air? Did my brother actually share some dirty little secrets with you, while I wasn’t there last night?” Air vehemently shook his head. “Then what’s so damn funny?” “I think we’re all just a little excited for the award ceremony tonight. That’s all!”, Alpha answered. 

A few hours later Alpha and I found ourselves opposite Air. I looked at Air: “So, how is your way of transportation going to work? Is it like travelling with the devil and blinking out of existence somewhere and appearing wherever you wish?” He shook his head and Alphas voice answered for him: “Nope! It’s not like that. Whenever you thought I appeared and disappeared somewhere it was just my way of entering and leaving a room. It’s nothing special – just my thing. The things you do when you can’t speak. The only time you saw me change locations for real was in the car yesterday. My way of teleportation has a bit more to do with my element.” 

“Is there anything else in your repertoire beside telepathy and teleportation we don’t know of?”, I asked him. Air looked at me while Alphas voice continued: “No! And I don’t possess the power of teleportation, at least not in the traditional sense. I can manipulate the element I’m named after. The devil just modified my powers a little when he freed me from that curse. The reason why his Dad wanted to kill me. My way of transport is quite unique but instead of explaining it: Let’s just do it! I can only transport one at a time. Omega, please come forward and put your arms very tightly around my torso!”

I stepped forward and did what he had told me. He lifted his arms and I felt massive amounts of wind circle around us getting stronger by the second. The strong winds made me close my eyes. My feet got lifted from the ground while I felt like strongly being dragged upwards. My body got light like a feather. I couldn’t really describe what happened to me but moments later my body got pushed downwards again. The winds were gone and I opened my eyes. Air readjusted his mask. He had transported me straight into our apartment in Stockholm. I wasn’t really sure what had just happened with my body: “Air, what the hell did you do?” Of course he couldn’t answer as Alpha wasn’t there. 

He just gestured me to take a few steps backward. He again lifted his arms and streams of wind started to circle around him ‘til he was enclosed by this sphere of air that then rapidly moved upwards. The black mass that was Air in the middle of it got dragged upwards as well and seemingly disappeared in the movement. I hadn’t felt the wind at all. Seems like he had shielded me from that. I did not have to wait long for Airs return. Another sphere of winds appeared again. Only this time a black mass moved downwards and after the winds were gone, Alpha and Air stood in the room. Alpha loosened her grip around Air and on wobbling knees took a few steps back, her face green. “Fuck!”, was all she said. 

It took a while until she, at least partly, had regained control over her body again: “Air, what was that?” It seemed like Air wanted to give Alpha a few more seconds to get herself back together so we had to wait a bit for the answer. But then finally: “I can dissolve the cohesion within my body and let the matter travel with the winds.” To demonstrate that he waved his right arm which was then circled by some winds and moments later appeared close to my neck and started to tingle me. Seconds later it was back in place. “I did the same with your bodies. That’s why you’re feeling a bit weird since most bodies of animate beings weren’t really made for travelling like that. It should be gone soon.” Alpha still looked a bit green in her face while I felt absolutely fine: “I think I’m okay!” 

Airs gaze moved in my direction: “Because your body is made to be disintegrated ad assembled again. You just haven’t managed to do it yourself. That’s why you need to practice more.” “Could all Ghouls do something like that?” Air silently sighed: “Yes, but except for you the rest of us are bound to their elements while doing something like that. You’re quintessence, the element above all the others. And I can’t tell you more.” “Air, I don’t want to bother you with more questions. I’m deeply thankful that you transported us that quickly but why do we even need this powers in the first place?”

Now, even a still sick Alpha looked up: “For the tasks the devil has up for us. Did you never think, he had more in mind for us than playing music? Of course he has. Well, and to defend oursel…” “Against what?” 

“God!”


	5. A Long Road V

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am very sad to hear about Omegas absence from the US Tour! He'll be deeply missed! Hopefully, he'll be back some day!

I was about to say that name again when Air put a finger on my mouth to shut me up. Alphas voice continued: “Don’t say that name. Spoken by a Ghoul it will only attract His servants and you don’t want them here. Alpha still isn’t a proper Ghoul so she can say it without anything bad happening. That doesn’t count for us. Luckily, I can’t speak.” Great irony! 

“The devil ordered me by your side to protect you from his servants while you were still evolving. I can tell you: Heavenly attacks aren’t what you call nice or pleasant. They suck and are quite dangerous, especially if you can’t defend yourself properly. This one curse nearly killed me. I wasn’t ready back then. Yet, I’m still surprised nothing has ever crossed our ways since Ghost started. I know, their activities calmed down after the devil had to return to hell. 

Well, the devil came back only a decade ago but the lack of heavenly activities is almost suspicious. How I hate those damn angels! I only hope, that the next five and a half months will pass without any major incidents. Once you’re a Ghoul, you’re a lot harder to kill and once your powers are properly developed you can defend yourself and others. Still, Alpha isn’t one of us yet.” 

Airs and my eyes wandered towards Alpha who again spoke for Air: “Omega, please promise me to protect her!” “But how?” “Just do what you did to the devil a few weeks ago and then, don’t stop. Just crush them! You can’t afford to lose her! There’s just too much at stake. Humanity must be saved from Him and his vicious nature! Please, don’t ask me how the devil is going to do that: I just don’t know! You should get ready! The cab to take you to the Grammis will be here soon! Good luck!” Again the sphere of winds appeared and Air was gone. 

“Alpha, are you fine?” Alpha tried her best to stand straight: “Air seems quite chatty lately. The next time when I will travel with him, I won’t eat anything prior. I think Air just gave us the best reason ever to stick together, don’t you agree?” Somehow she was right. Still the new bits of information by Air had left a sour taste in my mouth. What would happen if I’d ever lose Alpha, my complementary part? I did not want to think about such a scenario and a look on the clock didn’t leave me with any time for that. The cab would be here in a five minutes. 

And exactly five minutes later, Alpha and I, completely dressed and masked in our stage attire, were sitting in the back of the cab on our way to the Grammis ceremony. When we hit the red carpet, a lot of cameras started to shoot like crazy. Alpha later joked in my ear: “I feel like the main attraction in a zoo!” It literally took ages until we finally got seated somewhere very far away from the artists that had a good chance of winning something tonight. When the Hard Rock/Metal category came up, I grabbed Alphas hand and squeezed it hard through the process of listening to the nominees being read out. 

Moments later I heard our name: “And the Grammis goes to… GHOST!” I felt Alphas elbow in my side on got on my feet. Now we were the devils’ golden boys. Seems like the lighting had problems finding us, dressed in black as we were, since we walked down to the podium mostly in darkness. What an entrance! Shortly before we actually got up, the spotlight finally found us and I saw many heads turning. One of the presenters of the category handed me a microphone while Alpha received the actual award. Some people in Linköping would be really happy right now. As I was supposed to keep the thanking short, I simply thanked the people, that had voted for us, for fulfilling the devils’ dreams and leading us to victory. 

A sentence later, Alpha and I were led offstage for the obligatory picture. On our way to the photographer somebody handed us a glass of champagne. I would have preferred a bottle of beer since those were easier to handle with a mask on. Then I saw something else that caught my whole attention: “Alpha, please do all the talk when that photographer is around! I know him and if I talk, he’ll recognize my voice straight away!” Alphas eyes constricted: “Isn’t that the singer of TID?” She was absolutely right! I wasn’t really sure how he ended up here taking pictures of the Grammis winners. Speaking of random encounters! Luckily, the photoshoot didn’t take long and Alpha did all the talking despite the fact, that all questions were pointed in my direction. We were about to go when I felt a hand grabbing my arm: “We need to talk!”

A door somewhere in the backstage area slammed behind us and he started to talk: “More than five years I haven’t heard a word from you and now you do not even want to talk to me? Thought you could fool me by just keeping quite?” He had said the old name and I felt a cut on my left cheek. “What gave me away?” “I always thought that must be you behind the mask but when I saw your eyes I knew! I would always recognize them!” My eyes again! Quite some time later he assured me to keep quiet about my real identity, under the condition that I promised to write some new music with him. The only thing that stood in the way was Ghosts tight tour schedule. He said he could wait. 

 

About four weeks later, we were scheduled to play a show in Austin. Since we had left Sweden a few days after the Grammis win for the next leg of our US tour, we had played every night. We had arrived early from yesterday’s show in Denver to have more of our free day since the next show was about to take place tomorrow. We had slept through the whole bus ride and when the vehicle came to a halt, Alpha and I, woken by the stop of the vehicle, decided that it was for the better to get up. 

When I opened the curtain of the bunk, I saw that Airs bunk was already unoccupied and when we got downstairs he was sitting at the table reading something about Christianity in modern America. He looked up from his book when we approached him. Alpha looked at me: “Air wants to know if we have any plans for the day.” “We wanted to get a bit around Austin and see if we can find a decent record store. Besides that, a decent dinner would be nice. Why are you asking? Wait! Do you want to… join us?”, I asked in surprise. “Yeah, if you don’t have a problem with me being there.” 

This just couldn’t be! Air wanted to go out! In all those years I had known him he had never done anything like that. Not that it was because of my lack of invitations. I had always asked him but never got an answer. “You are always welcome, Air!” Airs eyes turned into a smile. As Alpha and I were already all dressed up and ready to leave, he was about to open the door of the bus when Alpha stopped him: “Shouldn’t you change into something else!” I couldn’t hear the rest of the conversation since it seemed to be too rapid for Alpha to translate everything for me into spoken language. After a while, Alpha sighed: “I’m sure Omega can borrow you some normal street clothes and you could buy some later! Right, Omega?” “Yes, of course! Well, Air, do you really own nothing except those black cassocks?” 

It took some time, ‘til we found stuff in my closet that was big enough for him since he was a few inches taller than I. When Air was in the bathroom downstairs trying some of the clothes on, a view in his closet revealed only black Ghost stage gear after all. So seeing him in something else was actually quite refreshing and we left for the city with the bauta masks still hiding our faces. We didn’t care to ask the others as Papa was best leaving his sleep undisturbed and Earth and Water probably had come up with other plans to spend their free time together. Luckily, both of them had been deep asleep when I had opened the curtain of Earths top bunk only to find them in a tight embrace. An earthquake probably would have followed if Earth had been awake. 

A few hours later, Alpha and I were on the hunt for some records. We had tried to assist Air in his clothes shopping but he soon sent us away since we were no big help in his eyes. And now, we were digging our way through this huge record store on the hunt for some rare treats our baskets already full. Air had promised to join us later. Alpha went to the Metal section while I tried to find some movie soundtracks on vinyl in the back of the store. I was looking through an old box of even older records when the lights went off. Something made my hair stand on end and it definitely wasn’t the pleasure of being surrounded by Alpha. 

I wanted to look up but something was restraining me. I fought against the invisible bonds and got my head to move up. All people around me had frozen in their movements. I needed to see what was going on in the record store but first I needed to get rid of those damned restrains that were limiting my movements. Those restrains were unlike anything I had ever experienced and of a strange origin. After throwing my powers against those invisible forces, I managed to get those nasty things out of my system. With my new found powers, crushing them was easier than I first thought and I made sure to shield myself from whatever had created those restrains. 

After this fraction of a second of struggling with the invisible bonds, my body turned around. My eyes caught a movement at the stores entrance as three tall muscular men entered. They obviously headed for something: Alpha, who like all the other people in the store wasn’t able to move. Something about those men was different and I didn’t like whatever it was at all. I moved my hands up and focused: their movement ended by crashing in what appeared to be an invisible wall. 

“Fuck, what was that!”, one of them exclaimed. Their eyes scanned the room. The tallest of them soon found me, thought for a moment and pointed in my direction a dirty smile on his perfect face: “Look, another demon! And he’s trying to fight against us! What a fool! Let’s show him where he belongs to, that piece of thrash!” They changed their destination and now headed for me instead. All sorts of forces started to strike at me, both invisible and physical, as objects of different sizes were flying in my direction. But my powers withstood their attacks, simply turning those objects to dust. Suddenly, I remembered Airs words: Crush ‘em! So I switched to attack.

And indeed, trying to disintegrate them seemed to work. The smiles on their faces disappeared and they tried to get away from me. I didn’t let that happen. Two of them started howling in pain while I heard the biggest of them say: “What is this little fucker doing?” Small pieces of them were already flying through the room when I saw huge wings emerging from their backs and fighting against them suddenly got a lot harder. Changing into their supernatural appearance had turned the tables. So I switched to defense mode again. They came closer and closer until only a few centimeters parted us and I could see their perfect yet unappealing faces in front of me but I didn’t give in. 

The tallest one looked me in the eyes as the smile returned to his face: “Boys, I haven’t seen a proper demon in ages and I can’t even touch this one, at least not yet. Thought they were all exterminated. He seems to be quite young. I’m just asking myself this questions: Where did he come from? How did he get that strong without any help? Let’s find out!” Partly, he managed to get through my defense lines as he removed my mask and pulled the hood of my jacket back but he couldn’t touch the scarred mess that was my face. His fingers were stopped millimeters in front of my right cheek. The tallest one again started to speak: “Look, how ugly this one actually is! I’ve almost forgotten what they look like underneath all those masquerades they come up with.” The other two laughed as the tallest one of them removed his hand from my face. 

“Boys, let’s make him even more beautiful! Like in the old days!” From out of nowhere spears glowing in the whitest color I had ever seen appeared in their hands. With those weapons as well as some ancient spells, I had never heard of, they tried to get through my defense. As those things very likely were nothing nice or pleasant I tried my best to keep them away from me but I got weaker since the attacks, coming from all sides, seemed to suck the power out of my body. One spear finally got me at my left upper arm. I immediately felt the burn the touch of the divine object caused on my body. The longer this went on and the more damage they caused on my body the weaker my defense got until it broke. I fell on my knees. 

“Boys, what shall we do first? Face or anything else?”


	6. A Long Road VI

From somewhere above me I heard the answer by a familiar voice: “Face!” But instead of pain this answer was followed by an agonizing scream. I looked up and saw Alpha who had her burning arms tugged around the tallest angels’ face while being on his back, her legs around his torso. Her legs blocked his wings so he couldn’t fly away. The other two angels were already on their way to the door running from Air. I saw them leaving the ground, fleeing. Back in the store, the spear of the tallest one had fallen on the ground. I focused on it and it completely disintegrated. I felt my powers recover quickly. Despite the many injuries on my body I jumped on my feet while Air came back to us, the people in the store still motionless. 

Alphas ghastly face caught my attention, as she, too, had lost her mask: “Omega, could you please help me securing him in this place! I can’t hold him any longer!” I lifted my arms and created invisible bonds around him. As I wasn’t attacked this time, it was a lot easier even though I was still recovering. Air stepped at my side anger clearly visible in his eyes. “Omega!”, Alpha started to speak, “I’m supposed to tell you that you fought well. You gave me enough time to call Air. He’s taking over now!” While speaking Airs name, the eyes of the slightly burnt angel widened in surprise: “Air, is that really you?”

From somewhere in his pockets, Air fetched a black dagger and threw it from one hand to another while Alpha started to speak for him: “Yeah Gabriel, you damn archangel, it’s really me!” 

“After all those years, you’re still alive?” 

“Obviously!”

“Where did you hide? Thought we killed all demons!”

“Nowhere! Only cowards hide themselves. I was always there waiting for him to return to this planet and now, the devil is back! But, I’ve got a question for you: How did you find us? Were you told to follow us?” He didn’t answer. “We don’t have to do it this way, Gabriel!” Still no answer. So Air stepped forward and placed his hands on Gabriel’s head slowly breaking through his defense. Gabriel’s face contorted with pain. Alphas and my hands moved to our ears to block those screams until they finally faded when Air lifted his hands and Alpha shared what Air had found out: “Those fucking angels actually are stationed here in Austin to supervise this network of highly religious Christian communities in the area which he describes as a boring job since it lacks all the excitement of the old days. They saw Alpha in the record store when they were passing by, sensed she bore something from the dark side in her and decided to bring some of the old spirit back as they thought she was an easy target. Luckily, you, Omega, interfered.”

Gabriel spit in front of Air: “You bastard! You shouldn’t even be here! Get out of my head!” The dagger started to fly at a higher pace between Airs hands: “You shouldn’t insult those in charge of you, Gabriel, but you never were among the bright ones. How long have I been waiting for this moment! Finally, I’m standing on the side with the stick in the hand instead of always receiving the beating. I always wanted to poke you… show you how it feels like to be the inferior!” Air really seemed to enjoy this moment and I was really sorry to interrupt it: “You two reach a long way back, am I right?”

“Longer than I wish for!”, was Airs answer, “as he was the one who put the spell on me that would have killed me – for no reason whatsoever. There was no war back then. I was a young Ghoul and he just wanted to torture and murder. Thought I was easy meat.” Hatred easily understood. I looked at the archangel and sensed his reckless, live despising nature. I couldn’t read minds like Air but by putting this invisible bonds around him I somehow absorbed a lot of information about his character and motives. And what I saw was highly unlikeable. Gabriel had a lot of blood on his hands. 

Obviously, Air had followed my thoughts: “But that’s not all: I could get over the spell and his personality…” Gabriel attempted to storm forward again to attack Air but was stopped by my bonds. As he couldn’t move in any direction and his spells didn’t seem to work he started to throw insult at us. Air pointed the dagger in Gabriel’s direction and the insults ceased: “Gabriel, I have every right in this world to hate you! Do I have to remind you what you did to me?” No reply followed. 

“Maybe I should! He left me to die but the devil saved me. After years he found out that I had survived his spell and wanted to kill me again but couldn’t as I had gotten stronger. Still, he wanted to get rid of me to bury every bit of evidence that one of his spells had actually failed. That’s why he told his Master all about the circumstances of how the devil had actually saved me, with the only power that works against these sort of heavenly spells: black magic. When the Lord Above agreed to spare my life in exchange for the devils return to hell, dear Gabriel here was the one in charge to enable me of telling anyone about what happened on the physical level while He made sure to put those bounds around my mind. Look, what dear Gabriel did to me!” Alphas voice stopped speaking. 

Airs hands rose towards his mask but Gabriel interrupted him: “But how is this communication between you and them even possible?” “They’re stronger than you think, almost as strong as I am. That’s why Omega is standing here at my side and not dead on the floor and Alpha burnt your feathered ass. Therefore, I can communicate with them, you senseless fool! And now, shut up or I’ll kill you right away! I have every reason to do so. And you know, I will!”

For the second time Airs hand raised up. First, he removed the hood of his jacket. The balaclava and the bauta mask soon followed revealing something truly horrific.


	7. A Long Road VII

Besides the typical scar tissue that covered us Ghouls there was way more. Airs face appeared to be ironed or branded with something pretty nasty. On top of the red greyish scar tissue were these black lines etched in his flesh. I just couldn’t imagine they had become part of Airs body without any pain involved. Still, the pattern theses lines were forming looked quite elaborate and probably had nothing to do with the torture Air had mentioned and the archangel Gabriel.

But something else obviously had! I looked down on my left upper arm where the spear of Gabriel had hit me and saw that parts of my flesh there had been etched away and now were glowing in a color familiar to the one of Gabriel’s spear. This color was visible on Airs face as well but much more prominent than on my arm. His whole face was covered with deep white scars in the shape of crosses on top of everything else. It didn’t stop there. Poor Air!

His lips were totally missing. Seems like somebody, probably the devil, had tried to fix it, still it looked gruesome. Alphas voice then added: “That’s just a small part of what he did. He tortured me for weeks on end. These damn crosses are all over my body. And to make sure no word would ever cross my lips he cut them off and ripped out everything involved in the creation of sounds.” Air then opened his mouth and behind two rows of very sharp teeth there was nothing but a black void where his tongue should have been. 

“Usually, I’m not allowed to show this but since he, who did this is here, I think I’m fine. I, too, will make sure he won’t be able to tell anyone.” Airs hands moved to the back of his head to steady the massive tail of black hair, the only thing besides his eyes that reminded of his past as a human being. Then he started throwing the black dagger again.   
“Gabriel, do you remember the last words I spoke before you started ripping parts off my body?” Gabriel’s eyes only widened. Fear clearly visible on his invisibly restrained body. 

He opened his mouth but the words didn’t want to come out. “See how I’m feeling since hundreds of years? You want to say something but you just can’t! Omega, take a guess what made him stop torturing me?” I thought for a moment: “Someone else to torture?” 

Air laughed silently as he borrowed Alphas voice: “Very close! It was actually an order by the Lord Above to extinguish a Norwegian village that refused Christianization. Gabriel here gladly accepted and killed all 428 inhabitants. He just loves death and torture accompanied by a bit of rape from time to time. But let me return to my last spoken words. What did I say? Yeah, right: I swore to revenge myself! And Kill you! Any last words yourself?”

“But you can’t kill me! You don’t possess the powers as He’s protecting me from you!”, someone had regained control over his speech apparatus. Air only smiled: “I know! With my restrained powers I could only screw with your brain to the point you’ll be sure you’re a three-year-old girl named Tiffany that still wets her pants and is obsessed with My Little Pony. And I could torture you a bit. Just like this!” He rammed the black dagger in Gabriel’s chest. Gabriel lips formed an agonizing scream but nobody heard it as both Air and I again blocked this body function of his. When Air pulled out the dagger gold liquid leaked out of the wound causing chemical burn on the floor. 

“Not many things can harm an angel”, Air, or better Alpha, spoke to me, “most involve some sort of affiliation with hell like this dagger. It was a present from the devil. Which directly leads to the way I’m going to destroy you, Gabriel. Indeed, I don’t possess those powers but he does!” Air pointed a finger in my direction. “Omega, I don’t ask for favors very often but now, I would like to: Would you please kill him!” 

Slightly confused I said: “Me? I don’t think I do…” Airs eyes gleamed: “Remember what I said about using your skills when somebody attacks you? Just don’t stop! Since nothing restricts you, that’s how you can destroy them. Even an archangel like Gabriel here. If you don’t, he’ll probably keep on haunting Alpha and you forever, ‘til one or the both of you are dead. Are you going to try?”

I hesitated until Air put a hand on my shoulder: “He isn’t worth living. Let me show you!” And indeed, Air showed me many things the angel had done in his life. Millions of live had ended because of him. I even saw some scenes of Airs torture. But the worst by far were the fantasies he had about Alpha which made my stomach turn upside down. “Omega, don’t let that ever happen!”, Alpha said now herself. Obviously, Air had shared this view into the archangels mind with her, too. 

I had decided. Luckily, besides the physical damage my body had taken, most of my powers had recharged. I lifted my hands and dared a try. I started gathering my energy in an invisible sphere around me until I thought it was strong enough. By the time, the huge silver rings on my ring fingers had started to glow in a blackish light, something they had never done before. Then I pushed this sphere of energy towards Gabriel until he was completely encircled and the real work began. When it came to people who wanted to harm Alpha I knew no remorse.


	8. An Long Road VIII

Later that evening, the three of us were sitting at the table of the bus, the ashes of Gabriel in a bag on the particular table in front of us. Air was taking care of the many bruises and cuts these damn angels had caused on my body with their spears. Usually, scratches and wounds healed up very fast when you were a Ghoul but not these ones. We all waited for the 8pm news to start. At the moment, Air was working on my back. He had already told me that these cuts were very likely to never vanish entirely but there were ways to reduce their sizes and the pain. He assured me that he had experience dealing with these kinds of cuts as the torture by Gabriel hadn’t been the only encounter with angels in his life. 

I turned my head around when Air softly slapped me on the back. He wasn’t wearing his mask when I faced him: “Are you done?” He nodded his head, handed me my shirt and indicated me to shut up as the news had just begun. Three pairs of eyes were glued on the television as the reporter started to speak: “Breaking news!” Then the report as well as live footage of an explosion in a particular record store in downtown Austin followed. Momentarily, the fire marshals guessed it was caused by a gas leak but first of all, they needed to get the fire under control. 

After I somehow had managed to shatter the archangel Gabriel into billions of pieces there was a lot of clean up to do. Basically, those damn angels had made a big mess out of that nice record store. Air suggested that the best method of covering up a big mess was by creating an even bigger one. So while Air was busy modifying the minds of all those people in the store, Alpha and I collected the ‘remains’ of Gabriel. After that we searched for something that could cause major damage: We found the gas line. We got the people in the store out of the danger zone before Alpha set a little fire and Air released the people from their frozen state. After that, we quickly disappeared. When we returned to the tour bus, Water and Earth were gone. Even Papa was nowhere near in sight, probably charging up his batteries with a bunch of girls. 

When the news was over, Alpha added: “Let’s just hope they won’t find anything suspicious.” Air then left his place behind me and placed himself opposite Alpha and me as he borrowed Alphas voice: “I don’t think they will. Fire’s always a good cover and the damage, compared to other things I’ve witnessed, was only of a minor character. It could have been way worse.” I looked at Air: “But what about the other two?” 

Two rows of very sharp formed a smile visible through the missing lips: “Don’t worry! Compared to Gabriel they weren’t much of a threat nor will they remember anything. I screwed a bit with their brains. They should be flying around now on the search for the end of the rainbow. I limited their brain capacity to the one equal to a three-year-old, so the task should keep them busy. Maybe they’ll even be shredded by a passing airplane turbine or something like that. That would be funny.”

“Air, you must be truly powerful to do something like that!”, Alpha assessed. Air shook his head: “Without Omega I couldn’t have done it. He weakened them immensely. I could have finished the two rainbow hunters alone but not Gabriel. Not with those restrictions.” This was followed by silence. Air then stood up, opened the fridge and piled many slices of raw meat on a plate. Before sitting down again he threw away his, or better mine, leather jacket revealing many more of those white crosses that had been etched in his body. 

“Air”, Alpha interrupted his feasting, “are there many of those feathered creatures out there?” Air nodded his head: “But many are either young or simply aren’t as strong they used to since they lost a lot of their human supporters. In a world where freedom and human rights become more and more important those old ideas of obeying far too many rules and following ruthless leaders just don’t work as well as they did a few centuries ago, of course if you exclude those radicalized regions here and there. Just that you know: we don’t have to worry about mobilizing followers since our shtick is all about individuality, one of the reasons why the devil got kicked out of heaven. Speaking of individuality, I think we as individuals should start to improve our skills to prevent shit like this happening the next time our path is crossed by those flying monkeys. Don’t you agree?”

Alpha and I both nodded our heads. “Cheer up!”, Air smiled again, “this doesn’t mean our carefree time is over and we have to live in a constant state of worry. Your first encounter with those creatures wasn’t that bad compared to mine. I think we should celebrate the day. Papa has enough work to do while Water and Earth are busy with each other somewhere else.”

Some hours later, it must have been early in the morning, I followed Alpha into my bunk. Before I closed the curtains, I took a look at Airs bunk only to find him waving a “Good night”. In the last few hours, his talkative and humorous nature had really surprised me. But after a day like this, I had really been in desperate need for something that joyful and encouraging. 

The tour continued without any problem since nobody suspected anything. None of the other band members even noticed the remains of the angel attack on my body. Sometimes ignorance was a good thing. And because I was busy with far too many things, my brain was kept from worrying too much about possible encounters with the other side. After the attack, Air, Alpha and I had started to practice in private to improve our skills and these sessions consumed a vast majority of our free time. 

 

Air basically had one task for me: Try to disintegrate my own body and reassemble it again. When he introduced me to this task, I told him he was crazy. A very amused Air just shook his head and told me through Alpha, that everything is possible if you only want to and if I fulfilled the task we would finally be able to communicate directly. So I tried.  
A few days before the end of the tour, I sat cross-legged opposite Air while Alpha lurked somewhere in the back of the bus and tried to get a small flame in her hand to burn in higher temperature ranges. Simultaneously, she spoke for Air: “I think you should have enough practice by now. One day you have to take the next logical step and just try, Omega! No stagnation. You’re ready! Just trust yourself!” Things you could say so easily. 

Our sessions had started with shattering little objects followed by reassembling them. After I had managed that, the objects got bigger and more complex. We then switched to parts of my body which was a lot harder and could be a frustrating and painful experience when you screwed up the reassembling part. Cohesion between living matter was a whole lot of more complex than fixing inanimate objects. Quite a few times I had fixed my body just moments before the show began. But until now, I hadn’t tried to do it with my entire body. Airs and my eyes now directly met: “You have all time in the world and I’m here!” 

Hours later, my body was scattered all over. Somehow if felt amazing and liberating to leave all earthen bounds behind. I sensed everything around me from the smallest organisms in the air to the fire in Alphas hand. But when I wanted to begin with the reassembling process nothing seemed to work and I panicked. I lost track of a big part of my molecules. Say goodbye to your body!

 

“Hey buddy!”, I heard a deep voice say, “panic’s no solution. Calm down! I know exactly how you’re feeling… probably a bit lost. It’s your first time and nobody’s born a champion. It’s all training. Just get your shit together and start reassembling one small piece at a time. You have all time in the world. Focus!” And indeed, my body started coming back together again – very slowly. Hours later the last bits and pieces were coming back together, just that my body was now on the upper level of the bus. 

Just when the last piece, my left foot, was taking shape again, Air appeared in front of me, a truly horrific smile on his face. He helped me on my feet and padded my shoulder appreciatively. Then I heard his deep voice in my head for the first time: “Congratulations! You made it! That was a huge step forwards.” I looked on the clock: the whole process had taken a bit more than eight hours: “No, that was terrible! It just took…” 

Airs deep voice interrupted me: “Stop whining” That wasn’t bad at all!”

“But you…”

“I’m more than 500 years older than you and had quite a lot of time to practice. Back when I did it for the first time, I got lost, too, and nobody was there to help me. It took days before the first pieces started coming back together again and somehow my body had drifted from France to somewhere in the Inner Mongolia. Winds are quite tricky. Eight hours and just one bus level up is pretty good for the first time. Skill comes with practice. The more you do it, the quicker you’ll become and the better you get at travelling to certain destinations. Any more questions?”

“No! Thanks for the encouragement, Air. But seriously, what does one do during 500 years?”

Air raised an eyebrow: “It feels good to finally be able to drill me with all those questions directly, doesn’t it!”


	9. A Long Road IX

“Yeah, you’re perfectly right! Direct communication’s just priceless! But what did you do in all those years?” Air shrugged his shoulders: “Worked on my special skills, got a bit around and had a lot of fun while waiting for the devil to return.”

Suddenly, there were feet on the stairs and Air and I both turned towards the door. Alpha entered: “Seems like my assumptions were right. Thought that I heard something up here. I’m glad, the both of you are back. Waiting downstairs got a bit lonely after a while.” So Air had been with me the whole time. Then Air asked: “What shall we do with the rest of the day? Actually, I thought this would take way longer. That’s why I picked this day for the first try, Omega, since we have no show scheduled for tonight.”

Alpha laughed: “I don’t think we’re lacking options since we are in Vegas.” Air smiled: “Let’s do what everybody’s doing here and gamble a bit. I think there’s a casino just around the block.” “Air, if you can get us in”, Alpha threw in, “I don’t think masked people will be welcomed there!” Airs face simply formed a mischievous smile. 

And indeed, 20 minutes later we were standing inside of this big casino. The security guards had just waved us threw without taking notice of our appearance. “Air, how did you do that?”, Alpha asked. Air shrugged his shoulder: “They just couldn’t resist the urge of letting in three of the most beautiful and well-known women they had ever seen. People do crazy stuff when they think important people are around. I do it all the time. Works great if they think you’re someone like Dave Grohl, Ellen…” To confirm this, Airs explanation was suddenly interrupted, as a member of the casino stuff approached us and handed me a jingling bag:” A gift from the manager, Ms. Swift. I hope you enjoy your stay here.” I opened the bag only to find it full of chips. As I didn’t want to play Black Jack, Alpha took some of the chips and joined a game. 

I was more interested in the slot machines and wanted to see how long it’d take for me to win. Quite some time and lots of money later I was running out of coins. “Did you never thing about boosting your luck? Manipulation the mechanics of the machine maybe?”, I heard a deep voice echoing through my head. Three empty machines later, I had more coins than I could carry and traded them in for bills. “Omega, what about a round of Black Jack now?”

“But it takes so long. Alpha still hasn’t finished her first game.”

“Or we could help her with my trick instead.”

“I never knew you were that enthusiastic about Black Jack. I’ve never seen you play in the devils’ casino.”

“Because he’s fed up with me taking all his money! That’s why. Reading people’s minds can be quite helpful in certain situations. I’ve been caught so often. Usually when I’m there, he orders somebody to follow me to keep me away from the Black Jack tables. But this isn’t his place.” 

Soon, the piles of chips in front of Alpha grew higher and higher while Air appreciatively sipped his drink and people came up to me to get autographs from their idol Taylor. “Air, could you please make them stop! I don’t want to sign any more junk!” Air slapped me on the shoulder: “Sorry! What about being Justin Bieber for a change?” Laughing, I replied: “Don’t you dare!” 

Unsurprisingly, Alpha won the game and after a few drinks we decided to leave. Our way back to the venue really wasn’t that long but something got in our way. For the fourth time this month I sensed something very unpleasant getting closer. A few months after the first attack in Austin it had all started. Since then, I kept a defensive aura around Alpha and me. Now, I moved my hands up and stopped the invaders midair – another pair of angels. I heard Alpha mutter beside me: “Not again!” Meanwhile Air made sure, none of the normal people around us realized anything that was about to happen.

We had tried to interrogate some but even with Airs telepathic abilities but most had managed to commit suicide before we could find out anything. Seems like somebody didn’t want to share information on the reasons why they were following us. I looked up at them and let them fly closer. The wings of the angel on the right side were already hanging motionless at his side – another dead bird. Alpha pointed towards the one on the left side: “Look, this one is still alive!” 

“Please, don’t kill me! I never wanted to attack you! Please! I don’t want to die!” Three pairs of surprised eyes met. What had the angel just said? But before anybody could say anything we heard a very loud sobbing noise. I looked up. Big tears were running down the angels face and only then I realized it was a female – a rather tiny female. She continued her pleading: “Please! I never meant any harm! Please!” To underline her words, she threw her white spear in front of us. The wings disappeared. Her hands then moved up in surrender. Her whole body was shaking in panic. 

Somehow, I started to pity her. I knew Air hated angels but I knew that this situation was very different from our previous encounters with the Lords’ flying monkeys and since none of the others were acting, I cleared my throat: “If you cooperate you won’t! Just answer our questions: Why are all these angels following us?”

“Because of her!”, she pointed a shaking finger in Alphas direction. Obviously they knew, Alpha was a female. 

“We’re supposed to… prevent her from… expanding her powers. They never said… anything about… other demons. I promise, I am forced to be here! I don’t wanna kill anybody!” 

“How did they find out?”

“They found these angels… that were stationed in Austin. One of them had this picture of a woman with burning arms still in his head. Beside that there was nothing left. That’s all I know! Please!” Air slapped himself in the head.

“Was that really everything they found?”

“Yes! I promise!” 

Her whole body shivered in fear – streams of tears running down her face. I didn’t want to continue this interrogation. The feeling of pity was just killing me. But I knew I had to for our safety. I was just about to move on, when I was stopped by a hand on my shoulder and a deep voice began echoing through my head: “You’re feeling this pity, too? Aren’t you, Omega? You know, how much I hate them, but since I’m no emotionless monster I can’t stand that sight any longer. Neither do you. Just get her down and I’ll check her motives. Afterwards, we can decide how to continue this interrogation in a less stressful environment.”

“Hey, lady!” The sobbing ceased slightly. “If you agree to get yourself checked and you really mean no harm to us, we won’t harm you either. Are you okay with that?” She nodded her head. After that, while still keeping the restrains up that limited her movement, I slowly set her on the ground. Feeble, she fell on her knee. Air then stepped forward and placed his hands on her head. The swift movement of his hands weren’t stopped by any sorts of barriers. She really had surrendered. After a few minutes, Airs voice again echoed through my head: “She’s all clear! I can’t believe this! I think you can release her!”

“Lady, you can stand up now. We won’t harm you!” Air moved his hands from her head and took a few steps back while the angel slowly made her way back on her feet, still heavily shaking. When she finally made it, she obviously wasn’t able to stabilize herself as she stumbled a few steps in Airs direction and tugged her arms around Airs massive stature. While pressing her face in the lower parts of his chest, it was very hard to understand her next words through all the sobbing: “Thank you so much for sparing my life! I never wanted this! Never in my life!” 

Air, on the other side in a touch of helplessness, had moved his arms up and had turned his head around. He now directly looked at Alpha and me: “She doesn’t want to be an angel!”


	10. A Long Road X

“What?”, was the only reaction by Alpha. “I didn’t just quote a Rammstein song. It’s anchored deep within her soul and I saw it! She never wanted to become an angel in the first place and now, she hates being one. She despises them!”, Air repeated what he had said earlier. “So she wasn’t born one?”, I asked. “No! Omega, I think this all is very complicated. The fear of being killed is just too much for her right now. Let’s get off the street. She needs to calm down somewhere safe before we can continue.” Then Alpha asked: “Are we really that scary?” 

“It’s not us she’s fearing. It’s her feathered ‘friends’”, was all Air said before lifting her up. Alpha and I followed his big steps back to our bus while all people near us froze. After Alpha had closed the door behind her, Air set the angel down on the sofa. She immediately pulled her knees close to her upper body into a fetal position and slowly started bobbing back and forth. Air put a blanket around her and attentively padded her back: “Omega, please tell her she’ll be safe here!”

So I did. Unbelieving eyes fixated me: “But… how… can you… be sure?” I sighed: “Obviously, this wasn’t the first attack we’ve dealt with. So far, besides a few scratches nothing has harmed us”, I tried to assure her. It obviously didn’t work: “But there… are… stronger, more powerful, forces!” This time it was Alpha who spoke: “Omega here even managed to disintegrate an archangel. We aren’t helpless!” Her movements stopped while her eyes opened wide: “Which one?”

“Gabriel!”

She sighed: “Oh, thank you so much!” Her whole body relaxed and within seconds, she was asleep. Alpha and I both looked at Air, while I started to speak: “So it was him she feared the most?” “Yeah! He tried to train her but soon got very frustrated with her rebellious nature and thus punished her. She always feared he would come back for her. But for the most part, I think she realized that she’ll be safe when we’re around. Let’s keep it this way. At least for the night until we’ve talked with the others”, Air suggested, “I really can’t find anything evil within her.” 

Then he once again lifted her up and carried her up the stairs. We followed him and assisted him laying her to sleep in Alphas bunk. As Alpha most of the time shared mine, it was usually unoccupied. Before actually closing the curtains of the bunk, Air lifted her shirt. Underneath, the same etched crosses covering Airs entire body were revealed. Gabriel’s signature. 

Downstairs again, the discussion of the events of the evening kept us busy. We generally agreed, that it was for the better if she stayed with us – for her safety and for us to continue the interrogation. Still, we needed the consent of our three other band colleagues. So we waited for them to return. 

It was almost 5 in the morning, when the door handle finally moved. Two tightly entangled, obviously kissing persons entered. Since the candles we had lit up at the beginning of our discussion had already burned down, they didn’t take notice of us in the darkness that surrounded us. Suddenly, a flame rising from Alphas right hand illuminated the room. Earths eyes met mine in disbelieve and shame, as he freed himself from Water. “No!”, was all he exclaimed before trying to make his way to the door while the bus slightly started to vibrate. “Earth, stop!”

He didn’t! But so did my powers, as he crashed into an invisible barrier in front of the door. He started to scream while the vibrating of the bus continued to grow turning into a wild shaking. I could restrain his uncontrolled movements and shut him up but was powerless against the outbursts of his powers. Therefore, everything around us continued to shake with the earthquake-like movements getting wilder. Nothing helped to calm him down. 

Then, Air finally lifted his hand. Through the mask, I saw Earths eyes opening wide, the muscles of his body relaxed and the bus finally stopped moving. Meanwhile, Water had remained calm. The only thing he had done so far was switching the lights on. He hadn’t tried to escape. But my focus remained on my little brother. Tears formed in his eyes, running down his cheeks somewhere behind the mask. I approached him and put my big arms around his tiny stature: “Hey, brother! Everything’s alright! Don’t be ashamed of yourself. I’ve known it for quite some time.” 

“How did you find out?”, Water, without his usual stutter, asked while I heard the sobbing of my brother. That was a hell of tricky question since Alpha and I couldn’t reveal Air as the true source of the information. Seeking help, I looked at Alpha who obviously had the same thought. Then, through all the sobbing, I heard Earths voice: “Yeah! How did you… find out? We were so carefully when we were around you tw…” He stopped and his vision drifted through the bus and suddenly stopped: “Wait…” 

Alpha, in an attempt to save the situation, interrupted him: “I just knew the moment I saw you two together the first ti…” She on the other side was intercepted by Earth: “No! No! No! Don’t lie! He told you, didn’t he!” He pointed a finger in Airs direction. 

“But Earth, he can’t talk!”, Water said, trying to reason with his lover. But Earth didn’t give in: “Yeah, but see what he did to me! He shut me down. I felt him somewhere in my head!” While saying this, Earth had freed himself from my arms and now stood directly in front of Air: “You can get in other people’s heads, can’t you! You’ve been in my head before! Tell me!” 

Since Air was more than a few inches taller than Earth it wasn’t easy for him to keep the tiny drummer at distance, but he had obviously heard enough as a deep voice echoed through my head: “Just tell him the truth! A lot of things will be explained easier if they know and maybe somebody, who’s proven to be painfully unteachable and unreasonable, will finally start improving his skills. Gabriel’s dead. Therefore, the bonds limiting me have become a bit looser. I think the truth will be the best option for all parties involved.”

“Yeah, Earth! Air told us with his telepathic abilities!”

Earth finally let go of Air and slapped himself hard in the head: “Fuck! I should have known!” Meanwhile, Air remained in a statue like state. Then Water asked: “But Air, why did you never…”

“Because he can’t!”, Alpha interrupted him, “he’s only allowed to communicate with people who are as powerful as himself.” 

I continued: “That’s right! And I only achieved this a few hours ago.”

“But why are you revealing this now?”, Earth asked.

“Because we have something important to discuss!”

“Our love life?”

“Nope! It’s a bit more serious. We’ve…”

“Do you want to marry Alpha?”

“Shut up, Earth! We’ve been under regular attacks from the other side of the border!”

“Angels!”, Alpha added, “and one is even here!”


	11. A Long Road XI

Fuck, Air! That looks absolutely horrific! Even in comparison to dancing skeletons!”, Earth exclaimed after Air had pulled down his balaclava and put his bauta mask on the table. The following smile by the oldest amongst us demon didn’t make it any better. “Earth, stop staring at him like he’s some sort of attraction in a zoo! It’s not his fault he’s looking like this! Blame the angels!”, said a rather annoyed Alpha. His reply immediately followed: “Then why in all seven hells is one in this bus? Personally, I don’t want to ruin my face any further!” Alpha and I both sighed while Air remained motionless. 

As it had taken quite some time to explain everything angel attack related to Water and Earth, the sun had already risen. But the latter one once again proved to be rather obstinate, as he still hadn’t quite understood the situation. So, I tried it one last time: “Earth, we already told you at least thrice that she isn’t dangerous. Air was in her head and sensed that she actually does NOT want to be an angel. She never wanted to attack us but was forced to. She won’t harm us and neither are we going to harm her.”

“And if she escapes?”

“That would be a rather stupid move for her. Here she’s save. Angels aren’t that good at finding demons since our aura naturally shields us from everything heavenly. Without us she would be as good as dead. She revealed too many things to us and didn’t manage to kill us. If other angels would catch her horrible things would happen to her and she knows that.”

“So she’s going to stay with us?”

“That’s something, all of us have to discuss. But she’s still recovering from the events of the last few days and Papa isn’t here. Therefore, this discussion has to wait until all of us are assembled together. I hope you understood that!”

Earth mumbled something before nodding his head: “Okay, everything has finally reached me! Still, I need to process this. Good night!”

That, honestly, was probably the best idea right now. Upstairs, Water jumped into Earths bunk without hesitation. In contrast to Earth, the usually so shy Ghoul had taken the situation much better than I could have ever imagined. Unlike his lover, Water wasn’t ashamed of himself and had understood everything angel-related. He had just kept a cool head – one of the reasons I treasured him so much. Earth on the other side once again showed why he was Earth. Instead of just getting to bed, he headed for the bunk the angel was sleeping in, but I caught him and whispered in his ear: “No! This can wait ‘til she’s awake. I’m still surprised your shaking bus didn’t wake her up earlier.”

I released him from my big arms and he stepped a few feet back: “I’m sorry! Everything’s just so complicated and I’m a fool and…” Fractions of a second later, he had stepped forward again and found himself wrapped in my big arms. I padded his back while my little brother mumbled: “Thanks for your understanding and being always there for me!”

“Always!”, was all I replied. 

“Earth, are you coming?”, Water asked. Earth finally let go off me. He quickly jumped into his bunk. Before he closed the curtain, both he and Water wished me a good night. When I looked around, I realize that the others had already disappeared. I soon followed Alpha and closed the curtain of my bunk. I wrapped my arms around Alpha and we got cozy. Resting on my arm, she was soon asleep. 

It had been a long day and I was very tired. But I just couldn’t sleep. There were too many things on my mind. Just way too many things had happened recently and I wondered if I had done the right things. Besides, I only hoped that the next few days up until Alphas transformation would pass without any major incident. What would happen afterwards was still a mystery to me. Of course, we would record a new album and continue touring but behind all this, nothing assembled to the bigger picture. 

“Hey buddy, can’t sleep? Too many things on your mind?”, a deep voice echoed through my head. 

“Hi, Air! Can’t sleep either?”

“There’s an angel here!”

“I thought she isn’t dangerous?”

“I’m just very suspicious when it comes to those feathered monkeys. They did too many things to me… That’s why I’m keeping an eye open for the night.”

“Understandable!”

“Hey, I don’t want to be rude but somehow I absorbed some of your thoughts earlier. I hope you’re not caught in some sort of existential crisis.”

“Not really! Just plagued by questions!”

“Yeah, I know! But earlier, you did the right thing! Sparing her life was the right decision. You showed mercy in a situation where most would have chosen violence. Omega, you’re a good guy! Proving once again your heart of gold.”

“Still, I don’t know why the devil chose me for the job. I know, he told me that he liked the music for whatever reason… I just want to know the plans he has in mind for us. It can’t just be playing music…”

“I can’t tell you what he has in mind for us… I don’t know myself. But what I can tell you is how he actually found you. Wanna know?”

“Well, of course! That question has been on my mind for ages: How the hell did the devil ever hear of a small fucking experimental metal group from fucking Linköping in Sweden of all places?”

“I will tell you. But you must promise me to not be angry with me. I know you are pretty upset with being a Ghoul – missing your old life.”

“Not anymore! I think I’m fine being a Ghoul since I met Alpha! She’s shown me why life’s precious. If I hadn’t chosen to become a Ghoul I would have never met her and would be dead instead. Nowadays I very much appreciate being one. A Ghouls life has its advantages.”

“Yeah, it does! The let’s begin with the story. He met you because of me! I showed him your music!”

“Because of you?”

“Yeah! That’s why I was afraid you’d be angry with me!”

“I’m definitely not! But how?”

“The devil had already returned to earth and I was staying in Vegas with him. I had previously spent quite some time in Sweden and started to get into the vibrant music scene there. I just love good tunes especially the regional varieties and fresh takes on music. That’s how I found MCC and TID. But I never met you in person. About a year after I had moved to Vegas, I heard you guys were giving your first concert, only a few weeks before you met the devil for the first time. Since big distances are no problem for me, I decided to come ov…”

“Wait! I remember! Were you by any chance the hooded…”

“Tall guy standing motionless, like a statue, in the corner of the club close to the entrance of the bathrooms! Yeah, I think we’re talking about the same scary guy!”, Air laughed.

“Why didn’t I realize this earlier?”

“Doesn’t matter! But I on the other side did realize something straight away when I first saw you, better two things: you were seriously sick and you had more potential than anybody I had ever meet in my life! Well, and your music was great!”

“Potential?”

“Yeah, potential! Let me put it this way: Not just everybody can become a demon, or an angel on the other side. Most lack these qualities. For example, only the biggest religious hypocrites get chosen by Him to become His flying monkeys. With us demons it’s similar, only that we get chosen by the devil because of different values such as individuality, righteousness, intelligence and strength – only to name a few…”

“Then how the hell did Earth become one?”

“I wasn’t finished yet”, laughed Air, “but you’re on the right path! Since the devil has already told you, I’m pretty sure you’re aware of the different kinds of Ghouls, aren’t you?”

“Yep!”

“Basically our potential and personality define the kind of demon we can become, the element we’ll be bound to. Alpha with her fiery personality isn’t the kind of person to become involved with the element of Water, whereas no other than his actual element would fit Water. With most people, who have the potential of becoming a Ghoul, the choice of element is quite obvious, but with some it isn’t. I am one of those exceptions. The devil wasn’t sure if Air or Quintessence was the right element for me. Nowadays, I’m very glad the both of us settled on Air because otherwise I wouldn’t be able to communicate at all.”

“You two settled?”

“Yeah, we settled! Before I met the devil, I was a slave treated like an animal to fight for the amusement of the people that kept me captive since whenever I can remember. He was on the search for people with potential and found me. He freed me from my misery and always treated me like an equal. But he wasn’t sure about the right element for me, so we agreed on waiting with the transformation until time revealed my true nature. But back then, the war between us and them was increasingly raging on and traveling with the devil soon got more dangerous by the day. Therefore, we decided it was for the better to no longer wait with my transformation and go with the safe choice: He made me an Air Ghoul. Still, that didn’t safe me form Gabriel’s curse.”

“But what has that to do with me?”

“Sorry, I know this story is kind of long and rather complicated, but we’re getting there. What I wanted to stay, is that the devil made me an Air Ghoul instead of binding me to the element of Quintessence because it was the safer choice. The both of us weren’t sure if I had enough potential. Quintessence inherits an outstanding position among the elements as it stands above all the others. To be honest, it’s the most powerful element. That’s why you were able to disintegrate the archangel. Only very few people have the right potential to be bound to this element - in fact, in the last century no one could be found. The devil had always been on the search for people with the right amount of potential since this element his crucial to his plans. When he had to return to hell, I continued his search since I can read minds and detect potential. When I first saw you, I knew that I you were unlike anybody else! 

“And you immediately told him!”

“Yeah! We had no time to lose. The tragedy with this element is that the people with the right amount of potential tend to die mysteriously and usually at a very young age to prevent a transformation. Basically, to strip the devil from his most precious servants to prevent his plans from happening. One of the reasons why some of the greatest minds on earth all died at a very young age. You were already very sick, that’s why we had to act quickly. Papa was a bonus. But we had to find an environment for you to thrive and evolve. So, I suggested music and starting a satanic themed band. I would always be close to defend you from any possible threat before you were able to defend yourself.”  
“Now, a lot of things make sense!”

“Still, many things don’t! I just know that once the devil has assembled a selected group of fully trained Ghouls around him, one of every element, the real work is about to start.”


	12. A Long Road XII

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, this is kinda long, but there is more story development and action coming in the next few chapters

I swallowed: “Real work?”

“Real work! But I have no idea what that means. First, Alpha has to become one of us and the other Ghouls have to evolve. Something, that won’t be easy!”

“You’re talking about my brother, aren’t you?”

“Yes, that little fucker! But I think especially his relationship with Water and the fact you didn’t laugh about them, as well as your appreciation, will help!”

“But why did the devil chose him then?”

“Like I said, it isn’t always that easy to choose the right people and their right element. Alpha for example could have had the right potential to be bound to the element of Quintessence if it hadn’t been for her fiery temper. With your brother the question was more like: Has he enough potential to become a Ghoul in the first place. We weren’t su…”

“We? Sorry, for always interrupting you, Air!”

“Don’t be! I know how complicated this all is. I was there in the hospital when the devil stabilized him. That’s why you weren’t allowed in there. Usually, Earth wouldn’t have fulfilled the requirements of becoming a Ghoul but he is your brother. To be honest, it took quite some time to convince the devil that it was for the better to turn the brother of his most precious Ghoul into one of us. Otherwise, the effects on your psyche would have been unforeseeable!”

“And all that just because of me?”

“You’re his crown jewel. He couldn’t afford to have you going mental. You can’t imagine how difficult it was for him to transform Earth. Anyway, he managed to do it. But pushing you to evolve your powers was a whole different story. I always told him that finding your opposite would be the best solution but he insisted on trying it with torture since it worked on so many others before.”

“Are you’re talking about yourself?”

“A bit! Gabriel’s torture on my body later somehow proved to have done wonders regarding my skills. Torture just used to be a common practice on both sides of the curtain to train new recruits. But on some, it just doesn’t work. The angel here, for example, didn’t start to become a better angel through torture because she never believed in Him in the first place. And you, Omega, thrive on love. You’re just too complex to be pushed in a certain direction with something as simple as plain old torture. I hope, I answered some of your questions.”

“Thanks, Air! Indeed, you did. But now, even more things are on my mind. How can I ever sleep?”

“I could help you if you want to!”

Without hesitation, I accepted Airs offer. Seconds later, an ancient lullaby sung in a deep voice was echoing through my head. Soon, I joined Alpha in her deep and undisturbed sleep. 

 

I opened my eyes. A look on the clock revealed that I had only slept a bit more than four hours. Basically, not a very long time, but since the day Alpha had introduced herself to the devil and I had discovered some of my powers I hadn’t slept much anyway. 

“Don’t worry”, a deep voice echoed through my head, “it’s pretty normal for the stronger ones of us to sleep and rest less since our powers tend to recharge very quickly. Usually, I’m fine with one to two hours of sleep. Sometimes, I don’t need it at all.”

We spend the next few hours in casual conversation, mainly talking about music. I came to the conclusion that Air was a walking music encyclopedia. It was just amazing how many artists and songs he knew.

“Hey, Air! That lullaby you sang for me, what was that?”

“The devil always sang it to me when I couldn’t sleep. He wrote it ages ago, as he is quite keen on music himself. It’s written in the tongue spoken in hell. I can speak it a bit but since he had to leave when he was just starting to teach me, it’s very rudimental. Anyway, that song is supposed to help you falling asleep and blocking out nightmares. As far as I know, it has always worked.”

“Yeah, it really…”

“Hey, I don’t want to cut you short but I wanted to inform you that Trip, our roadie, has just entered the bus and is on his way up. I suggest you put on your mask as he wants to talk to you!”

I had just enough time to pull the balaclava over my head and secure the mask when I heard him enter. Luckily, I hadn’t bothered to undress too much last night so I was still wearing enough clothes to cover the scar tissue on my body. 

“Omega, where the hell are you! We have a big problem!”

I opened the curtain with my right hand. The other arm was still occupied by Alpha who used it face down as a sort of pillow: “Morning, Trip! What’s wrong?”

“Oh, I hope I didn’t interrupt something!”, said a slightly ashamed Trip when he spotted Alpha sleeping next to me obviously assuming she was a groupie, “for hours, we’ve been trying to get all the stuff under the roof and on stage. The speakers, the lighting, the backdrop and all the other stuff. The machines to pull the stuff up both broke and we just can’t fix them. And most stuff’s just too heavy to pull it up manually. Plus, more than half of the crew is sick. We tried everything…”

I sighed when I heard Airs voice in my head: “Let’s do it our way! Together with Earth and Water it shouldn’t be a problem for us! Let Alpha stay here. We need somebody to keep an eye on the angel!”

I looked at our roadie: “Trip, if you would be so nice and wait downstairs for me, I’ll get dressed and see what I can do. Okay?” When Trip had left the room, I jumped out of my bunk after mumbling some assuring words into Alphas ear who then just turned around now facing the wall and continued to sleep. After we had put some fresh clothes on, Air and I began the agonizing task of waking our tiny lover Ghouls. When we opened the curtain of Earths bunk, their bodies were tightly entangled. Especially Earth was clearly pissed to be woken at such an early hour, at least for his taste, and his gaze at me was more than a bit threatening. 

Eventually, they managed to get off the bunk and put some clothes on. Meanwhile, Air and I were developing a plan. When we got downstairs, Trip was clearly amazed to see not just me but four Ghouls. He even rubbed his eyes, obviously to prove he wasn’t seeing a fata morgana. Yeah, beside myself and occasionally Alpha the crew usually never got to see any of the other Ghouls except when we were on our way on/off stage and of course during our shows. 

On our way inside the venue, I tried to explain Airs and my plan to Trip: “Air used to be an electrician before joining Ghost. He’ll be trying to fix those machines, but the crew needs to leave since he’s going to take his mask off. The rest of us are assisting him. Understood?”

“Fuck! You’re really never going to reveal yourself to the crew, aren’t you? But groupies are fine!” 

Somebody seemed to be quite upset.

“That wasn’t a groupie! That was actually Alpha!” In my head, I added the line: “And that’s probably the most you’re ever going to see off her!” Which made Air giggle. When I looked to my left, I realized that Trip wasn’t at my side anymore but standing a few yards behind us, his mouth open wide. He hadn’t seen too much of her, so everything regarding to our anonymity was fine. He had found out only one thing: “Alpha is a fucking chick?”

“Yeah, but shut up! Come on, we’ve got work to do!”

I hadn’t been foolish. Actually, I had released that piece of information on purpose since it was better to have a perplex Trip on your side rather than an angry one. Plus: Air had turned a few knobs in our roadies’ brain so he wouldn’t be able to tell anybody. 

We four Ghouls simply continued our way, while Trip, according to Air plagued with quite a lot of inner cinema, had problems following us. When we entered the venue, the healthy part of our crew seemed to be quite surprised to see that many of us. But since most were very supportive of our anonymity, all but Trip and our electrician left without any complaint. The latter one explained a few things about the broken machines to Air, who only silently nodded his head to indicate he had understood everything. The electrician left with the remark that had no idea why these machines weren’t working. He took Trip with him. Before we started our work, we made sure every door was shut and nobody could see anything. Air then sat down and started fumbling inside the machine. 

“Omega, if you woke us up to watch a medieval man destroying a machine he has no idea of…” Earth started to complain. But I interrupted him: “Stop whining! I didn’t bring you here to just stand around doing nothing. We have work to do!”

Before they could say anything, I lifted my arms and Waters and Earths feet left the ground: “I want you to secure all the equipment! I hope you remember that from our days on the road when we had to do everything ourselves.” Soon, some pretty heavy stuff was flying through the theater in Vegas.

While the two smallest Ghouls were busy fastening the last pieces that had to go under the roof, Air finally stood up and tried to switch the machine on he had been repairing. Nothing happened. We exchanged a look. Air shrugged his shoulders and a strong kick against the machine later, it started working. 

“Damn electronics!”, Air complained. 

Seconds later, Water exclaimed: “Hey, Omega! We’re done here!” Once again, I moved my arms up and Eartha and Water were flying back to the ground. After his feet were safely on the floor again, Earth padded my shoulder: “That was actually quite a lot of fun!” Air picked up the second broken machine and we headed for the exit of the theater. Outside, our crew was already waiting to be let back in. The only thing we said was my small comment directed towards Trip: “I think we should be fine for tonight. Air will take care of the second machine!” 

We left towards the bus with some surprised eyes still on our tail, as the machine Air had tucked under his arms was actually very heavy and usually required at least two persons to lift it up. The others weren’t short of a surprise either. More than once we heard the line: “How the hell did they do that?” We had fixed one of the seemingly unrepairable machines, moved quite a lot of stuff and attached all the heavy pieces under the roof in about 30 minutes. Even with both machines working, our crew would have needed almost twice the amount of time. 

Back in the bus, we were welcomed by the sound of a guitar. Alpha was sitting at the table and strumming on the crappy old acoustic guitar she refused to throw away. Air set the machine down on the small kitchen table which creaked loudly when the extra weight was added. Air immediately threw his masquerade away, sat himself down and started working on the machine. 

Earth watched the long elegant fingers doing their work: “Air, seriously! How do you know this stuff? Weren’t you born in a time when men threw rocks at each other and lived in caves? I think you surpass me in the technological and mechanical department!”

Air had lifted his eyes from the machine and a deep voice demanded me to translate his thoughts into words understandable for all in the room: “Earth, Air wants me to tell you that keeping up with the latest technology and inventions is the best way of not getting lost in new times and eras. He is very well aware… “That’s where I stopped the translation. Earths previous remark had been a compliment and an insult at the same time. Obviously, Air wanted to shoot back in the same manner: “Air, I can’t say that!” 

Air looked at me, trying to convince me to continue but I didn’t want to get stuck between the fronts as Airs next words very likely were going to cause a lot of trouble. I simply wanted to stay out of that.

But my brother couldn’t keep his mouth shut: “What’s he saying?” 

And he wouldn’t give in until Alpha finally translated Airs thoughts into words: “Earth, if you insist! Air says he might surpass you in mechanics but there are other fields you’re very far ahead of him, Earth. Fields, Air will never explore, such as manly love!” 

Upon hearing these words, Earths eyes widened. If Earth had shot with an AK-47, Air for sure had just dropped an atomic bomb. Obviously, this bomb had found the exact sensitive spot it was supposed to hit. 

The bus started vibrating and Earth stormed forward. But Air just stood up and in one swift movement, the tallest Ghoul picked up the smallest Ghoul by the neck. Once again, Earths feet left the ground and he could do nothing but dangle around as his arms were too short to reach Airs body. The vibrations of the bus stopped when Air presented Earth with his rather macabre smile of two rows of sharp teeth through his missing lips. 

This marked another unsuccessful maneuver by our small Ghoul of sorrow!

Waters, Alphas and my laugh quickly faded as we didn’t want to be rude since the subject matter was rather fresh and a bit complicated. Somebody else obviously didn’t know that and continued giggling. The eyes of all Ghouls turned towards the stairs to the upper level of the bus where the angel was standing wrapped in a blanket: 

“You’re a funny bunch!”


	13. A Lng Road XIII

With a dull sound, Earth fell to the ground. But nobody took any notice of that. All eyes remained on the angel who stood at the bottom of the stairs a blanket wrapped around her tightly. Nobody spoke a word. Earths eyes met Waters not sure what to make of this situation. 

Comedic relief soon came, when we spotted two very white legs making their way down the stairs: “Why can’t I sleep for once? Earth, is it really that hard to keep your emotions under control? Why is the bus always fucking vibrating? And who the hell brought a fucking groupie to this place? I thought we all agreed: no fucking groupies in the bus! Who fucked her?” He came down the remaining steps and put a hand on her bare shoulder: “I wished we had met the night before! You’re quite a beauty!”

“Papa, she isn’t a groupie! She’s an angel!”

“What?”, Papas hand left her shoulder faster than a lightning, “are you fucking kidding me! It’s too early in the morning for jokes!” But this wasn’t a joke.

 

After the other guys had caught up on the events of the last few weeks regarding the angel attacks, especially the very recent one last night, the angel herself had revealed a few very pieces of information: 

Nobody on the other side knew anything about the existence of us Ghouls nor about the return of the devil. The only reason they were hunting Alpha, was because Air had accidentally not erased every bit of our encounter with the angels in the record store in Austin, leaving a picture of Alpha with her burning arms tucked around the archangel Gabriel in one of the angels’ memory. Some pretty powerful forces must have extracted this particular picture. Since Gabriel never returned and the mental functions of the two angels that had managed to flee were irreversibly damaged, someone had come to the conclusion that Alpha was dangerous and must be terminated, since none had returned from hunting her down, assuming she was some sort of mutated demon hybrid that somehow had developed incredible powers. 

“But who extracted those pieces of information? And who decided on hunting down Alpha?”, Water asked. “Some of the archangels found the picture of Alpha. I don’t know how they did it. None of us ordinary ones were allowed to be in there. So I don’t know who gave the orders, either. Like I said, they never told me much”, the angel spoke. 

“But I do!”, I heard a voice echoing through my head and started translating everything in spoken words, “the orders came from the Prophets!”

“Prophets?”, the angel asked in a surprised tone, “are you kidding me?”

“No! That’s their way of communicating with Him. He chooses them out of His most trusted and faithful servants in order to transmit His orders. They aren’t particularly powerful. Only if He for example wants to set an example and decides upon unleashing some of his powers on earth directly.”

“Air, how do you know this?”

“One of those damned Prophets was present during my torture. Since the days of Jesus, He decided to let them stay in the back most of the time and lets others show their faces to the worshippers. Because killing one of His Prophets harms Him directly. He can’t risk to be weakened. That’s why they’re usually very well hidden and never show their faces. Of course not literally spoken like we hide ours.”

“And I thought this whole Jesus story was just a fairy tale”, the angel spoke. 

“As far as I know it was just His last try to directly win worshippers. It didn’t end well for him. Since the people just killed His Prophet. That caused quite some damage. It weakened Him immensely and in order to safe his ass He had to pull of this whole resurrection thing. In the end, He won some followers but in total it did more damage than good. That’s why the earth hasn’t seen a real Prophet in quite some time.”

“Is it really that bad for Him when one of them gets killed?”

“Yeah! On the physical level it’s like poking Him directly with a dagger. But for the most part it hurts His pride and reminds him of His fallibility. And Earth, before you ask me how I know this shit, it’s because I killed a few of them. Since I couldn’t kill Gabriel I needed to get my revenge somewhere else.”

Quite a few mouths opened wide. 

“I don’t want to be rude but what do I have to do to stay with you guys?”, the angel asked enthusiastically. All heads in the room turned towards her. “Seriously, I can’t go back! Horrible things will happen to me and to you if they find me”, she continued. 

“Or we could kill…”, Earth started. But I interrupted him: “No” We’re not going to do that. Last night we agreed on not harming each oth…”

“Well, I wasn’t the…”

“Shut up, Earth!”, Alpha interrupted him, “I think she deserves a fair chance. She can tell us more about this whole angel thing and maybe assist us on tour. She could be quite useful! Don’t you agree?”

After Airs and I had stated our approval, Water slowly nodded his head. I looked at Papa and Earth: “And what about you two guys?”

Earth forced a smile on his face: “Okay, I surrender. But if one thing happens to my face, I’m going…”

“Going to do what? Your face has already suffered quite a lot of damage and you were the responsible one! You can’t deny that. You were granted a chance like all of us in the room. So, I’m save to say she deserves a chance, too! What about you, Papa?”

Papas mismatched eyes met hers. He stepped forwards and took her hand: “You’re welcome here but only if you tell us your name!”

The angel smiled: “It’s Cirice!”


	14. A Long Road XIV

About a week later, we had just finished our ritual in Los Angeles and were on our ways to the bus. Only one show left in San Diego. Seconds after we had entered the vehicle, we were welcomed by Cirice the angel. Soon afterwards, the bus set off to our final show of this album cycle. Sparing her life proved to be the right decision as all parties involved started to open up very quickly. 

And it didn’t take long until she started to integrate herself into the whole Ghost machinery. On the fourth day, for example, she, unasked, handed me a schedule with all interviews, photo appointments and so on for the remaining tour, assisted us in some of our daily tasks and yesterday in San Francisco even managed to find Papa who had taken off with some girls to a place far away from our venue and otherwise would have gotten lost missing the ride to L.A. She felt like a part of the crazy bunch already but she hadn’t yet met the devil. That had to wait. 

A few hours later, the bus came to a halt. Our driver needed a quick stop to get some fuel. He also was in desperate need for a coffee. An unmasked Alpha and Cirice followed him out of the bus and left for the gas stations shop. Earth, Air and Water were busy with their game shooting each other while Papa and I continued our discussion about the future Papa III. 

“Omega, I’m really sick and tired of not having any hair on my head! In the summer, I get fucking sunburns and in the winter I’m freezing!”, Papa said while one of his wrinkled hands moved over his bald scalp, “he needs to change that!”

I sighed while I heard the other Ghouls giggle on the sofa: “Papa, just ask him! I’m sure…”

“And I need to get younger!”

“He already promised that!”

“Hey!”, Earth interrupted our conversation, “what about us? Those cassocks are quite comfortable and all but a nightmare when it comes to playing drums on stage. What about pants for a change?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about”, Water joked, “you’re always whining about everyth…”

“Shut up, Water!”, Earth shouted, “Air, why are you always shooting me? Shoot Water for a change! He’s been hiding in that old warehouse in the north. I hope you won’t shoot me like that in real life Luckily, guns weren’t yet invented when you were born.”

I saw Airs body move in laughter while I translated for him: “I wouldn’t count on that, Earth! Air says that in real life he could shoot you exactly like this. But he would always prefer a sword or a nice set of knives over a gun.”

The smile on Earths face vanished. 

“But Air says he would never do such a thing since he grew to love your annoying and immature nature way too much and life without the usual trouble would be way too boring.”  
“Thank you, Air! I’m deeply relieved now!”, said Earth while padding Airs arm. Seconds later, he was rewarded with one of Airs gruesome smiles. “Hey, Air! I like you, too, but these smiles are just…”

Before he could continue whatever he wanted to say, Air had thrown away the video game controller, pushed Earths hand away and quickly headed for the door. I had felt it, too, with my hair standing on edge and followed him close on his heels. We were just in time.

Those feathered monkeys had found us again. In an attempt to protect herself, a circle of flames surrounded Alpha and Cirice who had her golden spear in one hand. A group of at least ten angels was trying to get through to them. While still running towards them, I moved my hands up. A few of them crashed into my invisible barriers while the angel closest to us shattered into millions of pieces. 

Seconds later, the flames faded and Cirice, Air, Alpha and I were standing side by side opposite twelve angels of whom 3 were archangels. Meanwhile, people were fleeing everywhere. Alphas flames had kept them away, but now that they were gone, two angels stormed towards Alpha. Air grabbed one after parrying the angels golden spear with his black dagger and twisting his arm in a way he let go of the spear. But before Air could finish him off, Cirice had already stuck her spear in the attackers’ heart. Meanwhile, I managed to destroy the other one, which made the remaining ten angels back off a few steps. 

I risked a quick glance towards the bus. Our driver quickly passed Earth and Water without taking notice of their unmasked appearance, while the two smallest Ghouls were watching the things happening at the gas station with their eyes wide open. When I turned back to our attackers I realized that they had assembled themselves in a formation.   
The biggest of three archangels started to speak: “What is this? The angel that was supposed to hunt down this hybrid here, has teamed up with her target and is now joined by a bunch of demons that shouldn’t even exist since they were extinct centuries ago? Cirice, seeing you in this situation now, killing one of your own, makes me regret my lack of enthusiasm a few years ago when we archangels were sitting together discussing your lack of faith. Back then, I wanted to kill you but Gabriel insisted that he could form you with enough time and torture. Obviously, he was wrong. Where is he?”

“He’s dead! Nothing more than ashes.”

“What?”, the tall archangel exclaimed in disbelief. He tried to storm forwards but was stopped by my barrier. The three archangels exchanged a few looks. The smallest one finally said: “Seems like we accidentally run into a group of particularly strong demons, that…”

I did not hear the next few sentences as Airs deep voice echoed through my head: “Keep them talking! The longer they talk – the better. I’ve already managed to break through the defense lines of one of the angels. I can’t reach the devil. We have to finish them by ourselves. Omega, please ask Cirice if she really is on our side. This is going to get bloody!”

So I whispered: “Cirice, are you really with us?”

“Forever! Hail Satan!”

I grabbed Alphas hand and sent her the following words through Air: “Try to stay away from them! Don’t be the hero! We can’t afford to lose you. I’ll shield you from the worst!” After that, I started to assemble energy around me while also creating an invisible shield around Alpha. 

“… So, if you surrender we will all kill you with mercy! Tell me, you dull creatures: do you want to die the hard or the easy way? Because one thing is for sure: You will die tonight!”  
What a lovely offer! 

Alphas fiery nature broke through with her: “What about neither and you die!” 

And I had just told her to be careful…

But before anything else could happen, three black daggers flew through the air and three angels collapsed. So, Air had managed to get inside quite a few heads and managed to paralyze them while his skills with the daggers were nothing but amazing as all three had found their ways right between the angels’ eyes. Three more corpses! Four more angels and three of the more powerful archangels left. 

But instead of heading for Air, they headed for me. Only this time, I was ready for them unlike my encounter with Gabriel. Still, it was three against one. Air and Cirice were busy enough with the four other angels while it was for the better to keep Alpha out of this fight. Attacks were exchanged back and forth: They trying to hit me with their spears and their ancient spells that were mostly blocked by my defense and I trying to hit them with all sorts of flying objects and my attempts to resolve the cohesion within their bodies. 

Meanwhile, this whole fight created a big mess: For example, my first successful attack that was supposed to dissolve the spear of the smallest archangel not only dissolved the particular object but also to my amusement the entire right arm of the archangel. The downside was the enormous explosion that tore a huge hole in the store of the gas station. Luckily, I didn’t hit one of the fuel tanks underground. Alpha used this momentum and cut the smallest archangels throat with one of Airs daggers she had pulled out off one of the corpses. 

Parts of me were glad that she had done this but others weren’t as she, obviously the easiest target on the battlefield, would have been dead if I hadn’t interfered and stopped the spear midair that was aiming for her head with my powers. With one hand, I kept the archangel in his place, while I used the other to get Alpha out of the danger zone. She protested. But there was no time for such things. She landed safely near the bus. 

For a few seconds too long, my attention had drifted off the tallest archangel. When I turned back to him, I realized in horror that he had somehow broken through parts of my defense and his spear was on his way in a deadly stroke. I reacted out of pure instinct. Fractions of a second later, my body was gone while the spear only move through empty air. “Where is that little fucker?”, the tall one screamed. The training with Air had just saved my life! Even the reassembling part went on a lot smoother than previously. But surprise looked different as I struggled for balance when my feet hit the ground again. With my defense back up again, the fight continued. 

Minutes later, I realized that this fight was going nowhere. No side proved to be the superior. Then, I had an idea – a pretty stupid one actually! I focused most of my power on the taller angel as he was the most annoying one and I wanted to get rid of him first. I slowly started breaking through his defense while I kept the other at distance. Then, I found a hole in the tall archangels’ defense. I immediately stormed forwards while disintegrating his spear and wrapping my arms around him. Something, Air would despise me for.

And indeed, my idea proved to be rather stupid! I had never tried to disintegrate myself twice in one night, let alone taking somebody with me while additionally keeping a rather powerful archangel at distance. Still, at least I tried but the extra “weight” of the archangel somehow seemed to pull me downwards. But I felt that I wasn’t that far from success. I just needed more power. So I focused on a rather big ice machine behind the archangel I tried to keep at distance. Since that dull creature was too busy breaking through my defense it had forgotten to take care of his own. The bulky ice machine found its destination with a rather unpleasant sound. 

I used this moment and shifted my powers back to the tall archangel caught in my embrace and indeed, it worked – slowly, but it worked! A bit more time, and my stupid plan would succeed. Our feet, his wings and parts of our lower torso were already shattered when I realized that the other archangel was regaining his consciousness quicker than I expected. I focused even more. But when Mr. Ice Machine got back on his feet, almost defenseless parts of me were still there – a bit of my torso and my precious head. Still, I didn’t give up and continued my task! But when I heard his approaching feet, I closed my eyes and waited for the end.


	15. A Long Road XV

Instead of a spear in my head, I heard this noise – a horrible noise I couldn’t really identify. But I didn’t care what it was, simply focused once more and seconds later my body was gone again – and with me the archangel. So, that stupid plan had actually worked. Since the bodies of angels, at least according to Air, weren’t really made for something like this, the archangel should either be as good as dead right now, if I didn’t help him with his body - why would I - or it would take him ages to come back together again. Welcome in limbo!

I didn’t know how the others were doing but what I knew for sure is that there was one archangel left. My body slowly started coming back together again and now I knew what caused the horrible noise: most of the gas station had collapsed and fuel was just flowing everywhere. I turned away from the destruction and spotted Earth kneeling a few yards apart from me his arms on the ground. Earthquake-like waves were spreading from the point where he was knelling while more and more parts of the gas station were collapsing. As my feet hadn’t come back together again, I couldn’t sense the waves. But I realized that my little brother had just saved my life! Somehow he had managed to control his powers for once and made the gas station collapse thus burying the remaining archangel under a big piece of concrete. 

“Earth, I think you can stop now!”

Earths hands left the ground and the waves ceased immediately. He obviously wanted to come closer but a movement caught both our attention and my brother froze. The big piece of concrete had started to move and seconds later, flew through the air. That damn archangel was still alive. In my still incomplete state I couldn’t do much. I did my best to reassemble again as fast as possible. I needed time but the archangel was already storming towards me, so I screamed: “Earth!”

Obviously, my scream had woken him up but like always, Earth didn’t do what other would have done. Instead of once again using his powers, he simply stormed in the direction of the archangel, without a proper weapon against a vicious creature way stronger than himself that held a deadly spear in his hand – most people would call this suicidal! 

And it would have been, if I hadn’t interfered and used all my powers to blast at least the spear out the archangels’ hand. For now, I couldn’t do much more and continued my task – only my lower body missing. Meanwhile, Earth used the surprise I had caused by separating the archangel from his favorite weapon. Fast as lightning, he slid through the much taller ones’ legs, got back on his feet and quickly jumped on the archangels back. Seconds later, I saw shiny and very sharp teeth digging in the archangels’ neck and golden blood flowing down his body. Earth must have hit something major. My brothers’ ideas weren’t always the best but at least he wasn’t a coward. He had experience fighting against forces much stronger than himself. 

This gave me valuable time. I was seconds away from getting myself back together again, when the archangel somehow managed to tear Earth off his back and slammed the tiny Ghoul hard on the ground in front of him. He rubbed his neck that was covered with Earths bite marks and screamed: “You little bastard! You’re gonna pay for that!” He then got on his knees and started strangulating my brother. I still couldn’t do much neither could Air and Cirice as they were still fighting against the remaining two angels. 

Then I heard feet passing me by. Water was storming towards his lover and picked up the archangels’ spear while still running. Even from my position I could smell the burning of his flesh that was holding the spear. But Water didn’t care and simply impaled the archangel with his own weapon. Only then, Water realized what had happened to his hands and quickly let go of the spear. A loud “Fuck” escaped his lips while Earth was gasping for air. Moments later, every molecule of my body was back again and I could finally move.

“Are you guys okay?”, I asked them when I was close enough.

“I think I am”, Earth said, “if this damn blood wouldn’t cause this terrible burn on my skin.”

“What about your hands, Water?”

Water showed them to me. The burning was pretty bad but he hid the pain very well: “It’s bearable. Earth, let me help you get that stuff off your body!” Seconds later, Earth was soaked but free of the archangels’ blood and it seemed like the cooling caused be the water had eased the pain of our bassist as well. 

Then, a coughing noise made all three heads turn towards the ground. Even though Water had put that spear through the archangels’ heart he was still alive. Asking him questions was pointless as he already had taken the poison they all hid in one of their teeth. Still, I did not have to listen to the agonizing screams that would soon follow. One blast of my power later, some larger parts of his body were scattered all over. Dull creatures!

I turned around to see if I could help Air and Cirice but they were already on their way towards us. One of Cirices’ wings looked broken but she still smiled while Air followed her with an admiring look on his face. 

But before one of us could say anything a loud scream made us turn towards the bus: “Papa, let me go! They’re finished! I can’t wait any longer! Get your filthy fingers off me!”  
Then, Earths hand found its way on my shoulder: “Brother, I know you had a tough fight, since we saw everything from the bus, but you can’t imagine how hard it was to keep Alpha from rushing to your side. Water had to extinguish your fiery lover twice and she even burned Papas favorite robe. 

And indeed, Papa looked a bit burned when he followed Alpha who jumped in my arms and passionately started to cover me with kisses. For a while, nobody said a word. 

Finally, who but Earth cleared his throat: “Hey, Cirice! That wing looks pretty bad!”

Cirice shook her head: “This is not the first time it’s broken! The archangels have broken my wings numerous times in order to punish me. A few days from now, everything will be fine. Don’t worry about me! Worry about Water! Look at his hands! Someone needs to take care of them!”

She grabbed Waters wrists and started examining them, then looked up at Air: “Do you know how to fix them?”

Air shook his head while Alpha translated for him: “No! My way wouldn’t be enough to restore his bass playing ability! I guess the devil needs to take care of you, Water!”

Waters face grew even paler but he agreed. 

Air now looked at me: “I’ll be back soon. Besides Waters precious finger, we need to take care of this mess. I suggest fire. Shouldn’t be very difficult at a gas station.” He then told Water to get closer and within seconds they were gone. 

Only then, we took a look around to inspect the destruction. Luckily, our bus looked fine as our driver had parked the vehicle as far away from the gas stations shop as possible. With my powers, I moved it even further away from the gas station. But besides the bus, most things had suffered severe damage not speaking of the many corpses lying around. All eyes then looked at me waiting for instructions. I cleared my throat: “Well, let’s pile up all those bodies!”

Air reappeared somewhere in the middle of our “cleaning”. While the others were busy pilling up the bodies, I tried my best to minimize the damage of our little fight. I repaired parts of the building, relocated some of the cars and put some of the leaked fuel back in the underground tanks – only to later blow up everything. Meanwhile, Air, who had seated himself on the ground some right where he had reappeared, tried to find all people that had fled earlier and tried to modify their memories. Well, and lead the police away from this place, at least as long as we were still here.

Finally, we were done. All we needed to do now, was starting a little fire. Alpha kneeled down and a small flame appeared on her index finger. The fire spread quickly since everything was soaked in fuel. She ran back to us. We had waited for her close to the bus in a distance safe to the fire. The explosion that soon followed was immense – bigger than expected but I could shield us from all of that. The cops would be here pretty soon.

When we got in the bus, we immediately realized that we had forgotten all about our bus driver. He was ranting and shaking when we got in there and his face filled with absolute horror when he saw us since we were still unmasked. Air rolled his eyes, grabbed him and put one of his massive hands on our drivers’ head. His expression soon became tranquil and carefree – he looked like being extremely high. Yet this wasn’t the first time Air had messed with his brain. Since we usually ran around unmasked in the bus and he still had to be in here to drive us from A to B, he usually forgot what we looked like immediately. Air told him to get behind the wheel and hit the road. A few miles ahead, a big column of police cars and fire trucks passed us. 

“I shouldn’t have gotten out there!”, Alpha said many miles further.

Air shook his head: “They would have found us anyway! Even if you hadn’t left the bus. Sometimes, they just cross your way. It’s not your fault!”

“But Water! He can’t play with those burned hands!”

“He’ll be fine in a few days! The devil promised to take care of him!”

“What about our show in San Diego? Should we cancel? Omega, what do you say?”

I thought for a moment: “We should vote on that! Personally, I think we should play! It’s our last show. I think it would be a bit suspicious to cancel after all that happened at the gas station. Plus: We need to show our fans that we’re there for them. We can’t just hide!”

None spoke a word but Airs deep voice echoed through my head: “Well said! One of the reasons why I’m still alive is that I never tried to hide. All that did, are dead!”


	16. A Long Road XVI

A few days later, we were back in Vegas – a bit proud of ourselves. Not only had we defeated quite a few angels but we had also pulled off the show in San Diego less than a day later even with Water missing. Now, Water was still missing. After we had finished the tour in style, we had returned to Vegas to await whatever the devil had in mind for us. But as of now, almost a week after we had arrived here, neither the devil nor or tiny bassist had shown up yet. 

Most of us could wait since we knew that Water was in good hands, but the more time passed the more nervous Earth got. While all the others enjoyed the amenities of the devils’ casino, he was just restless and always seemed to be on the run looking for his lover. Just two days ago, Papa, Alpha, Cirice and I had sat down for a game of Black Jack supervised by Air in the main hall of the casino. During this one game, Earth at least walked through the hall seven times. The security guards only shook their heads when he once again passed them mumbling stuff to himself in rapid Swedish. After talking to one of the guards, we found out that this had been going on basically since we got here. 

First, the guards had been more than a bit confused by my brothers’ behavior but now only laughed when they sighted him again. Since they knew us we could move as we wanted – even Earth. 

The only exception was Cirice. Some of the other demons staying at the casino warned us upon our arrival that it was for the better of her well-being if she never left our side. Only after the devil had confirmed that she indeed wasn’t a threat she could move freely. So, she was always around one of us. 

But this time, I was all by myself – for the first time in months nobody was around me. Alpha and Cirice had left for some shopping, dining and maybe a stop at the movie theaters. Since Vegas was the ultimate city of sin, no angel would ever set a foot in this town. Therefore, Alpha was free to go without worrying too much about meeting one. Plus: It had been one of her two wishes to go out in public unmasked before the transformation would take place. Afterwards, that wouldn’t be that easy anymore. The other wish had been to visit her mother and sister who now had settled down and lived in the south of France. But that was too dangerous. So, shopping was the easier and safer option. Papa was either sleeping or partying and Air busy at the Black Jack tables, while Earth was still looking for Water.

I, on the other hand, sat on the top of the casino and enjoyed the last rays of the setting sun – unmasked, a bottle of cool beer in my hand and my feet up just watching the sun fading away. Since this top roof of the casino belonged to the devils’ personal quarters, the chance that somebody else would come up here was almost nonexistent. Despite the loud and heavy traffic down on the streets, it was almost quite up here. The more time passed the more I descended into the peaceful solitude up here. When the last trace of the sun had disappeared, I closed my eyes and drifted away.

“Water, where the hell are you?” 

I almost fell out of my chair! I looked around and saw the silver mask illuminated by the moon. Seems like Earth was really looking everywhere. He, on the other hand, didn’t notice me. No mask to give me away. 

“Earth, he isn’t here!”

My brother jumped, almost falling off the roof.

“You scared the shit out of me, brother! Why are you up here?”

“Simply enjoyed the setting sun and fell asleep. Want a beer?”

“No! I need to find Water!”

I sighed: “Earth, he isn’t here! He’ll be back when the devil returns. You won’t find him here! Not even in the vault! Heard you were trying to get in there the other day but security stopped you. To be honest with you: searching him here is absolutely pointless!”

“But when is he going to return?”

“I don’t know! When time comes!”

“And where is he? Where did Air take him? What if he’s still hurt!”

“Air transported him to the devil! We already told you that a hundred times! And the devil is the best to take care of his wounds!”

“If I could only know where the devil is right now! We should get Air talking!”

“He can’t tell us and it doesn’t matter! Stop whining so much, Earth!”

“But I… I miss him so much!”

“I know!”

I stood up and wrapped my huge arms around his tiny statue. With one hand, I grabbed his mask. I looked at him. He had been crying.

A lot!

My fingers moved through his hair. He avoided my eyes. 

“Brother, look at me!”

I heard Earth sniffing but he moved his head up. 

“Water will be back! I’m sure there are reasons for his absence. Who knows what the devil has in mind. As your brother, I’m telling you to calm down! You’re making everyone crazy! Come sit with me!”

I released Earth and handed him a handkerchief and a bottle of beer. When the sun was rising, we were still talking. 

 

A few days later, an enthusiastic scream woke me up: “Look, who’s back!”

Alpha, who was lying next to me, jumped as Earth stormed into the room. Water followed him on his heels. Seconds later, the two Ghouls jumped into the bed and tugged their arms around Alpha and me. It was a wonder, nothing collapsed. 

Earth screamed: “We’re all together again!”

After having freed herself, Alpha tugged a blanket around herself and rubbed her eyes. Call this a stormy awakening. I spotted a movement in the doorframe while Earth and Water were still hugging me. Air was only shaking his head laughing in silence. 

“What a way to be woken up! Right, Omega?”, Airs deep voice echoed through my mind. 

Alpha cut our mental conversation short: “Water, how are you? Are your hands better? When did you return?”

They finally released me and Water showed us his hands. Except for an unusual tint of black, they looked like nothing had happened. Water smiled: “I think I can play the bass again. The devil did a pretty decent job…”

He stopped there.

“And?”, Alpha wanted to know.

He only shook his head: “I saw things I shouldn’t have seen.”

Earth gaze shifted from his lover to Air: “Where did you take him?”

Air responded his gaze while Alpha answered for him: “I already told you that: to the devil!”

“And where was that?”

“Just add one and one together and you’ll find out!”

“It’s your fault that he’s scared…”

“No!”, Water interrupted Earth, “first, it’s not Airs fault and second, I’m not scared. I just don’t want to talk about it. I’m only happy that I’m back.”

“And that’s all that matters!”, Alpha added. 

While the others were shifting the conversation towards an easier topic, I send Air a massage: “Did you really transport him straight to hell?”

“Finally, somebody who can do easy math”, Air replied, “I only brought him to the gates of hell. I’ve never crossed the gates. I only know where the current entrance is located. No living being can set foot there and leave again without the devils’ help as only the souls of the dead are allowed to enter and usually no one ever leaves.”

“Then why was the devil there and not on earth?”

“Occasionally, he has to go back. From time to time, his Father sends somebody down to control if he’s still there. Since time works different high above and down below, these visits take only place like once a year or every other year in our computation of time. The thing is, that the devil never knows the precise date of the arrival. His informers can only tell him when the preparations for the next control begin. Sometimes, he only has to wait a couple of days while on other occasions he has to wait for months. This time, it took a bit longer. Creatures born on this planet can only exit hell with his help. That’s why Water had to wait a bit longer down there. At least, the devil had plenty of time to take care of his precious hands.”

After that, Air remained quiet. There was no need to explain more. I had seen what hell looked like. It wasn’t what you call a destination of your dreams…

…”Well, at first, the devil thought he couldn’t heal my hands properly but then he had this idea”, Water said while showing his hands, “besides that, I’m not telling you more. Even though I know you are a nosy bunch. So that’s all I’m telling you: He peeled of the damaged skin and replaced it with some of his own flesh and blood. A bit hocus pocus later, they were fine again. I don’t mind the color. He said it might fade over time but who cares.”

Silence filled the room until Water cleared his throat: “Before I forget it, I was supposed to take you to the devils’ personal quarters. He says it’s time for evolution. Time to strive for something better!”


	17. A Long Road XVII

An hour later, six hooded figures surrounded the devil. He turned around to look at each of us. Pride visible in his eyes. 

He cleared his throat: “Well, before we start with the real stuff, I have a few things on my mind. The most unpleasant one first: Cirice, please step forward.”

A seventh hooded figure left her previous position somewhere inside the shadows of the entrance area of the devils’ quarters. She stopped in front of the circle that was painted on the ground. But the devil gave her a signal to enter. After hesitating a few seconds, she crossed the line and now stood directly in front of the devil. He removed her hood and looked her directly in the eyes. 

“So, you’re the angel that refuses my Father”, the devil started, “Water already told me a lot. He said you’re unsatisfied with heaven.”

She shrugged her shoulders: “I choose my side. Nobody else. Screw heaven! Screw Him! I’m not bringing misery and death over this earth because of some old delusional fool who’s too scared to take matters into his own hands and actually care for His people. I don’t want to have anything to do with that. I just can’t undo what they did to me.”

“That’s true!”, the devil replied, “and I can’t either. Yet, I detect truth and honesty in your words. Tell me, angel, which side do you choose?” 

He grabbed her arms and took a long look in her eyes. Cirice withstood his gaze: “It’s very simple: I choose the side that thinks like I do. The side that understands me and treats me like a human being with respect, care and offered me friendship. Hell, Satan!”

The devil raised an eyebrow: “I never thought I would hear an angel ever say that! I deeply apologize for everything that happened to you because of my Father. I hope I, His son, will treat you better. Welcome to the better part of the family. At least, if you want to stay.”

She stepped forward and tucked her hands around the devils’ torso: “What a question! Of course, I want to! Thank you, for giving me a chance!” 

The devil smiled: “That’s the least I could do for you, after I heard what you did at the gas station. I would like to continue this chat, but I think this has to wait a bit. I need to take care of my Ghouls. Still, you can stay if you want to. I think it’s safe to trust you!”

Cirice, too, smiled. Visibly relieved, she left the circle and set herself down in a leather chair not too far away from the bar thoughtfully observing us. 

“Now that this matter is off the table, I have a few words for you, my Ghouls”, the devil began, “I couldn’t be with you at the gas station because dear old Dad and I had some business to do. But dear Water here told me that you managed the situation quite well, even without my help. You can be proud of yourselves. It’s definitely not given that four young and inexperienced Ghouls, one with limited powers, a half breed and an angel go against three archangels and almost a dozen angels and all are standing here to tell me of this battle.”

“Well, it was mostly Omega”, Papa said, “he killed the archangels, while I was just…”

“I couldn’t have done it without your help…”

“Stop!”, the devil cut me short, “it doesn’t matter who did what. You worked as a team! Water, you showed a lot of courage when you grabbed that spear and helped your friend. Earth, you finally managed to control yourself. Air, you worked together with an angel. Papa, you protected Alpha from herself, while you, Alpha, did as much as you could. Omega, you did everything in your power and you did great. I know, you wouldn’t be here without your fellow bandmembers but none of you is supposed to do everything by himself. You’re in this together. That’s the point! I know that there are stronger and weaker ones around. You’re all, well except Air, very young. Training will help you to get better. But keep working as a team!”

He remained silent for a moment before clearing his throat: “That was the moment for applause.”

A few giggles echoed through the big room and a big smile crossed the devils’ face: “Well, then. Let’s start the third and new era of this project!”

A movement caught the devils’ attention and he turned towards the hooded figure that had moved: “Papa, we’re going to discuss your future appearance when time comes. Same goes for any creative issues concerning the next release. First, we have to concentrate on the most important thing on my to-do list and that’s Alpha! I already asked you a few weeks ago: Alpha, do you still choose a life committed to the dark side?”

Alpha, who was standing next to me, raised her voice: “Of course! My decision remains the same!”

“Good”, the devil said, “I think the faster we transform you the better since they are still after you, Alpha. Would everyone be so nice and leave the room. As you all know, this specific ritual requires privacy!”

Cirice was the first to exit the room followed by Air and Papa. Water and Earth left hand in hand. I was just about to reach the door when the devils’ voice stopped me: “Omega, please stay.” 

I turned around in surprise: “I tought no one is supposed to see…”

“Yeah, yeah!”, the devil said while walking in my direction, “but I need you anyway.”

He closed the door and guided be back to Alpha. 

“Remember that Alpha-and-Omega-curse?”

Alpha and I both nodded our heads.

“Time to conclude it. And I can’t do it without one party missing. Now, Alpha”, the devil said while grabbing her hand, “after the usual ritualistic phrases, I’m going to offer you a chalice filled with my blood. Please, drink it. Don’t panic! It will slow your heart down until it stops beating. Unfortunately, that’s a necessary step for the transformation. I know, it sounds brutal but I promise, all my Ghouls made it through. The transformation itself won’t hurt. It only takes a while to recover. Isn’t that right, Omega?”

I looked him in the eyes: “Why didn’t you tell me when you gave me the chalice?”

He laughed: “You’re a highly suspicious creature. You would have never put your lips anywhere near that chalice if I had told you before! And please, don’t blame…”

Alpha interrupted the devil: “I’m sure it wasn’t you who set the rule for this process. Good old Dad again?”

The devil confirmed: “Always the same bad guy.”

“Then let’s get over with this! I trust you!”

The devil looked at me: “You heard the lady!”

I rolled my eyes. From out of nowhere, the devil fetched the golden chalice I had drank from before. Soon, Alpha had emptied it and raised back to her feet. Since Alpha already was partially demon, it took a while ‘til the first symptoms began to show. 

“Fuck, I can’t breathe!”, was all she said before she trembled and fell. I grabbed her and brought her safe to the ground. I stroke through her wild blond-reddish hair and whispered nice things in her ear trying to calm her down. But I knew that whatever she was feeling right now wasn’t anywhere near pleasant. 

I felt her pulse. There wasn’t much left. Big blue eyes met icy cold ones. With her terminal breath, she whispered: “See you on the other side, my love!” The picture of her pale unharmed complexion and the pair of icy cold blue eyes burned into my mind. Even though I knew, she would soon be back with me, it was hard to hold those tears back. 

A hand padded my shoulder: “It’s only natural to fell what you are feeling. Let’s get over with this. I suggest a bit of space between us. You wouldn’t want to get in the way. Maybe this will make you feel better, Omega. But you’re the first, dead or living, to ever whiteness this. Enjoy the show!”

I stepped back.

The devil lifted his hands. Alphas body moved off the ground. The air charged with energy. I blinked. When I opened my eyes, I realized that the devil had switched to his natural appearance now a mixture of dark red and black, a pair of black horns now visible. His eyes glowed. Suddenly, the black clothes Alpha was wearing, disintegrated and black particles began to encircle the two while the air was still charging up. But the level of energy soon grew far beyond my own capabilities.

And then, the devil started to sing. 

I couldn’t understand a word. Yet, sung with his deep voice it was beautiful and the tears returned running down my checks in rivers. What I heard, deeply touched my heart. As the chant got even deeper while simultaneously building up, I almost didn’t realize the slow change of Alphas body.

The devil, after a particular furious part of his musical liturgy, had lifted his hands up directed towards Alpha, particles started leaving her body and converged with the Lord of Hell. The number of particles increased the wilder, deeper, more intense and more emotional the chant got while the particles encircling them got darker and darker. 

Soon, nothing but muscles and bones remained of Alpha. I was thankful for the particles encircling them. At least, I did not have to see everything in detail. What I saw was enough.

Somehow, I knew that the liturgy was about to climax. And indeed, the devil started moving towards the remains of Alpha. His hands reached for her chest. He grabbed some of the bones of her thorax and opened it up to reveal her dead heart. He let go of the bones and placed his hands near the motionless muscle. 

With a climactic deep long note, the devil showed me his true power. I had never felt this much energy being released before. An infinite number of black particles left his body. Most directed towards Alphas heart. But I couldn’t see much. Yet, what I heard and had seen was enough. Some old black magic was being released. The quintessence of my body felt shaken. I understood why this ritual wasn’t supposed to be seen by any eye, living or dead. 

The deep note still echoed through the room. But I felt it was slowly fading. As did the particles returning inside the devils’ body. After the last particles had faded, the devil cautiously picked up reassembled Alphas body.

“Come!”, he said, “I need you now!”

I approached them. The air was still charged. 

I placed one of my ringed hands on Alphas now heavily scarred chest. I felt her heart beating. Tears of sorrow turned into tears of joy. I took her out of the devils’ arms and pressed her unconscious body against mine. I was just about to put her body down when the devil interrupted me: “No, that’s the exact positon I need. Let’s finish!”

Before I had any time to protest, I felt my feet leaving the ground. While the essence of me had been deeply shaken by what I had just witnessed, it now felt like somebody was tearing it apart. 

 

I opened my eyes. Alphas and my body were still entangled in a tight embrace. Alphas face looked horrible. Now, she was one of us. 

“I didn’t make the rules. That was dear old Dad. If I would have had the last word, you all would look normal. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.”

The devils’ voice was close. When I turned my head around, I was surprised at how close he actually was. His face only centimeters away from mine. 

Before I could say something, he started to speak: “Sorry, for being such a creep but I was really curious if that spell worked. I just hate fucking waiting!”

“What did you do?”

“Just finished the prophecy. Alphas and your fates are now inseparable. Let’s celebrate! That’s the first time in aeons this damn spell has worked properly! True love’s just so rare! Get up now! It’s time to get a few drinks!”

“No!”

“What?”

“You’re talking about true love and you demand me to leave her? First I’m taking care of Alpha until she’s conscious again.”

“Quite stubborn, are we? It will take days ‘til she’s awake again! And you know that, Omega!”

The devil almost sounded like an impatient child. 

“Fine!”, I said while looking him in the eyes, “get the others! If we’re celebrating, we’re doing it up here!”

“You command me…”, he stopped a moment until his face softened again, “fine! I’ll be back in a few minutes!”

After I heard the door close behind him, I picked up Alpha and brought her to the devils’ bedroom. I placed her in his oversized bed and gently stroke over her now scarred check. Somehow, she looked peaceful. Yet, she was still naked. Randomly, I opened closets. Suits. Suits. Suits. Nothing but suits! Then, I found what I was looking for. Normal clothing. Probably left by some of the devils’ devotees after some pleasant nights. I just wanted to make Alpha feel the most comfortable when she was waking up. 

Just when I had put the last piece of clothing on, I heard steps. Many steps. The devil had made it and found the rest of the band. He had even brought Cirice. Everyone was now staring at Alpha. Nobody said a word. It was just crazy how fast someone could change. I felt a hand on my shoulder.

“I’m glad she’s safe now”, a deep voice echoed through my head. Time to get drunk!


End file.
